The Entity - A Remnant Knights Fanfic
by Mystic-RK
Summary: Which side would you choose in a world distorted by a towering darkness? Who is there to blame? Is it possible to distinguish between right and wrong any more, in a time of sheer desperation?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – The Encounter**

JapansAce stared into the long barrel of a gun in a state of utter disbelief, her claws fifty feet away from her beside the only pillar holding up the ceiling in their desolate, empty house - the mysterious gunner having knocked them away from her in their duel. She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't. As she laid helplessly in that little corner, trapped by the gun, she couldn't believe what had become of her once dear friend. She whimpered softly, tears in her eyes, hoping her friend still had some compassion left within him to spare her. Why did she not bring her toaster with her?! Why did she forget?! It seemed almost foolish now. If she had it, maybe this wouldn't have been the outcome it is now... but...

"It is no use to struggle. Nobody knows you are here. You should feel priveliged to be my first victim."

The voice sounded rough and gravelly. JapansAce remembers it well, even though it had been distorted beyond recognition. She choked back tears, unwilling to believe what he had become.

"N-No... Please don't..."

"It is hopeless. Nobody can hear you."

"P-Please..."

With that, JapansAce's world seemed to explode as, almost as if in slow motion, she sees the gun readjust itself, a flash of gunpowder and a bullet emerging to pierce her armour and lodge itself in a device over her heart. JapansAce screamed as the device was destroyed and she felt an electrical surge run through her body. The world around her faded into nothing. She could see the gun and the mysterious person no longer as she collapsed in total darkness.

At that moment the wall opposite to JapansAce was blasted open, revealing a vast number of people.

"Turn around slowly and drop the weapon!"

The mysterious gunner whirled around and stared at the mob. The speaker was a white-haired boy with a long staff. His hands seemed to crackle with electricity, his eyes fixed on the gunner, which widened with shock.

"DayBunny?! It's you?!" MagicsOwner exclaimed in shock.

DayBunny tore his gaze away from Magics and flicked his eyes rapidly through the giant mob. He immediately noticed people he recognised a long, long time ago, long before that fateful day. His eyes darted over StrangerD3RK, his cousin BlissBunny, Hatake, HidekiHinata amongst many others. His glowing eyes quickly flicked from one person to the next, until they found Pypski, and there his eyes seemed to linger.

Pypski had been avoiding DayBunny's gaze, but as DayBunny's eyes fell on her she looked back at him, and she was shocked to see DayBunny - not the creature which he is now, but the DayBunny she had known so well and had accepted into her club TeamRocket so many years ago. His eyes looked normal, and there was no trace of whatever it was that had affected him. His lips moved, and Pypski heard a voice inside her head. Distorted no longer, the voice of DayBunny rang in her head, making its presence known to Pypski, and nobody else:

"Help me..."

The voice startled Pypski. She broke her gaze and quickly shook her head from side to side in disbelief. She looked back at DayBunny, but no longer can she see his previous self. The creature which DayBunny had become was now grinning wickedly, and his mouth opened. No longer was the voice what she used to know. No longer can she herself only hear it.

"I'm so glad you came to rescue your friend. But you're too late. If she survives she will be in a very deep coma. Better to give up right now."

DayBunny grinned more broadly. It was a grin full of malice, The real DayBunny was nowhere to be seen, hidden by this mysterious entity.

"I hope you have a pleasant day..."

He appeared to adjust something on his gun.

"...Because things are about to get hot."

He carefully aimed his gun at the pillar...

"I'll be seeing you."

...and pulled the trigger.

A fireball erupted from DayBunny's gun as he laughed evilly. Magics followed the fireball along its path with his eyes and watched in fear as it struck the pillar. He stared, mesmerised, as the pillar began to crumble. He heard voices shouting around him and people hurrying around doing things unbeknownst to him. He watched as the top of the pillar fall off with a deafening crash, and stared blankly as the pillar itself began to teeter dangerously.

"I've got Jace, now let's get outta here!" a voice shouted.

"Don't forget her claws!" a second voice was heard.

"Did she bring her toaster?" enquired a third.

"No, I don't think so. Let's get out before this room collapses!" said the first.

"DayBunny broke her respawn device, we'll have to fix that before she can wake up and tell us anything useful!"

"Has anyone seen DayBunny and Pypski?!"

"I thought Pypski was with you!"

All the time, Magics stared into the room... until he was splattered in the head by a barrage of small round objects.

"Magics, let's go!" said the unmistakable voice of Overlord Momo, one arm free, a big pile of Momo fruits in the other, as the pillar finally collapsed with a crash.

"I can't believe it... it was DayBunny?" Magics asked, his eyes still glassy and transfixed at the place where the swaying pillar was.

"Let's go! Or do you want to die...!" shouted StrangerD3RK urgently. The ceiling was looking dangerous now, and could collapse at any minute, yet still Magics had not moved...

"I'm leaving you in here if you don't come!"

At these words Magics snapped out of his trance. He looked around, bewildered. His eyes darted across the room, searching for DayBunny, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Come on...!" StrangerD3RK tugged on Magics's arm, the pile of Momo fruits falling to the ground with a series of squelches.

Magics gave in to the force, and obeyed. As the two ran into the sunlight outside, they heard a tremendous crash from inside. The ceiling finally collapses as Magics and StrangerD3RK rushed out into the sunlight.

A cacophony of voices greeted the pair as they approached everyone else.

"Does anyone know what happened to Pypski and DayBunny?"

"I don't know, I wasn't watching."

"I think he disappeared after he shot the pillar."

"Did he take Pypski too?"

"I'm not sure, but if he did they could be anywhere!"

"We need to get Jace to a doctor!"

"We could take her to Lauren, she's got a clinic in Hillville, I hear she's a most excellent vet-"

The speaker was cut short as someone slashed his face with JapansAce's claws.

"Hey, what gives?! Why did you do that?!" Viewtifulboi retorted.

"She's not an animal!How dare you suggest taking her to a vet?!" said Tamani indignantly, petting a nearby Moo Cow.

"I was only kidding... sort of..." Viewtifulboi replied sheepishly.

"We';; tale jer tp pme pf tje Mirses." Birou said with a slight tone of finality.

A silence greeted Birou's comment. Everyone looked puzzled.

"...What?" said Magics finally.

"We'll take her to one of the Nurses, asterisk," replied Birou. "Sorry, I have a lot of LSD today."

"Why did you just say "asterisk"? And are you on drugs?!" Viewtifulboi demanded.

"LSD is Lilliyan's Speech Disease, View... QQ..." replied Birou.

"What about the asterisk? And the QQ?" asked View.

Birou was spared the need to answer.

"Hurry up guys, I don't know how long Jace will be like this, if we waste any more time she might not survive."

"Watch out! Here comes a tornado!"

As if by instinct, everyone quickly took out a small card, held it in their hands, and began chanting while the tornado bore down upon them. Suddenly, the children begin to disappear one by one to reappear at their respective schools, moments before the tornado lifted up the remains of the destroyed house and scattered the pieces all over Neo Kansas.

Pypski and Daybunny sat on top of a pyramid in a lonely desert. Their only companions were grotesque Mummified Jackals and Wandering Mummies, which occasionally tried to attack them, but ended up circling the base of the pyramid in frustration, unable to reach the pair.

"Why did you bring me here, Day? If that's who you really are?" asked Pypski. She had avoided looking at DayBunny since she met his gaze in the house which he had destroyed minutes earlier. But she did so now, and to her surprise saw the face she was so familiar with. Pypski broke her gaze and shook her head slightly again, but this time DayBunny did not change back. Pypski looked away from DayBunny again and into the desert night, and when the latter finally spoke, DayBunny's voice was no longer distorted, but back to normal.

"I need your help."

"With what?" Pypski asked curiously.

"I can't carry on like this. I need something new."

"How can I help you with that?"

"Stay still for a few minutes."

"What? How-"

Pypski was cut short. DayBunny had aimed his gun at her and quickly fired a bolt of lightning, stunning her into an absolute silence. Pypski can only watch, horrified, as DayBunny began to change before her very eyes into the same hideous creature she had seen in the house. This time, however, he glowed an ominous green. A shapeless green mist floated out of DayBunny and into Pypski while both watched in horrified silence, DayBunny having returned to his normal self. Pypski glowed the same ominous green that DayBunny had done a second before, and almost immediately a huge shockwave emitted from Pypski as the mist fused with her, blasting the pair off the pyramid in opposite directions, and both landed hard in the sand.

Pypski, now transformed into the same hideous creature as that which she had seen DayBunny transform into before her very eyes, immediately picked herself up and walked away, transforming back into her normal self as she did so, and her green glow faded into the distance. DayBunny had been dazed by the shockwave and the fall. He stared up at the sky blankly, the silvery moon reflected in his eyes, as several Undead Jackals and Wandering Mummies approached him. Suddenly, the moon was no longer visible in his eyes, which widened in shock and horror.

It was all over in less than ten seconds.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Origins**

=================Some years previously...==================

"Hey, are you two ready?" enquired Pypski, knocking at the doors of JapansAce's and DayBunny's dorms with both hands simultaneously. DayBunny and Japansace were good friends, and the Headmaster of the Dragon School had granted their wish to have their dormitories next to each other.

"One second, I can't find my toaster..." replied JapansAce, whose voice was muffled by sleep, several blankets and the door. She had been sleeping rather soundly when Pypski's loud knock forced her awake, and she now laid groggy in bed, but she couldn't tell Pypski that she was still asleep.

"Well, hurry up, the Headmaster wants to see us. I've booked all of us to take the Fourth Grade promotion test, and he's organised it for today."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," JapansAce groaned. She had stayed up the previous night studying for the exam and had completely forgotten that it was today. She quickly got dressed into her Striker gear, placed her trusty claws on her back and began to look in earnest for her toaster.

Meanwhile, outside her room, Pypski had started to focus her attention on DayBunny.

"Hurry, Day, we don't want to be late. The Headmaster had the test starts at 9am sharp and it's already 8:45!"

"15 minutes? Just enough time for a hot shower." replied DayBunny from inside his dormitory.

Pypski groaned in frustration. They only had fifteen minutes to meet the Headmaster. DayBunny's shower will take up at least five to ten of them. It seemed that they were going to be late, and she knew the Dragon Headmaster has never appreciated lateness. She definitely didn't want to end up the same way as the previous students who were late for a grading exam...

At that moment a distressed wail resonated from JapansAce's dormitory.

"I can't find my toaster anywhere! Someone must have taken it in the night! It was here before I went to sleep!"

"What?! Are you sure?! But we need your toaster!" replied Pypski urgently.

"Oh, sorry, I borrowed it last night. I felt a bit hungry and wanted some bread, but all the bread had been in my fridge so it was really cold... and I wanted hot bread... and your room was unlocked, so..." yelled DayBunny over the noise of his shower.

JapansAce pulled open the door of her dormitory with so much force it swung back 180 degrees and slammed into the wall with an ear-splitting bang. She stormed out of her room, pushed a startled Pypski aside, took out her 100t Hammer and banged violently on DayBunny's door using the hammer as a knocker.

"GIVE ME BACK MY TOASTER!"

"Go ahead and take it, the door's unlocked, it should be in the kitchen sink," replied DayBunny over the noise of the running shower.

Just as JapansAce retrieved her toaster from the kitchen sink, the sound of running water stopped. She looked nevously towards the direction of the bathroom and to her surprise saw that the door had been left open. DayBunny stepped out of the shower and emerged, a towel around his waist.

JapansAce immediately hurled her toaster towards DayBunny in a fit of rage. It bounced off his head, leaving a deep red bruise. DayBunny yelled out in surprise and agony. Pypski suddenly rushed in and held out her arms between JapansAce and DayBunny.

"You two, stop it, we only have..." she checked her watch. "...seven minutes before the exam starts! Jace, you're ready now, right?"

"I am now, thanks to him..." JapansAce glared at DayBunny.

"OK, Jace and I will start going. Day, for goodness's sakes put some clothes on. We'll meet you in the Headmaster's office. But don't be late! If one of us is late, he marks everyone as late, and you don't want to know what he did to the last group of latecomers to a grading exam..."

"What did he do?" enquired DayBunny inquisitively.

"He tossed their toasters in the fishing pond and fed the fish in it roasted bunny using a bloodstained hammer," replied an irritated Pypski, walking off with JapansAce towards the Headmaster's office.

A couple of minutes later, JapansAce and Pypski located the Headmaster's office. However, DayBunny was nowhere to be seen. There were only two minutes to go before the official starting time of the examination.

"Where is that rabbit?!" Pypski was annoyed - she was going to be late, and it'll all be DayBunny's fault.

At that moment the Headmaster rang a bell from inside the office, signalling that there was one minute to go before the examination. At that moment, a bedraggled DayBunny rushed up to them, his clothes torn by what appeared to be brambles and scratch marks peppered his gun.

"What the heck happened to you?!" Pypski asked, almost horrified. After all, they had only left their dormitories several minutes ago.

"Got... caught up... by something." DayBunny panted out of breath, sitting down to recover his energy.

"Looks to me like you've been dragged through brambles or something..." JapansAce said.

"Pypski? DayBunny? JapansAce? It's time for your Fourth Grade exam," announced the Headmaster from inside his office.

The trio entered the office, DayBunny still groaning in minor agony.

"Good morning... and what happened to you?!" The headmaster asked, looking at DayBunny.

"Oh... nothing... a Meep stole my gun on the way here and kept biting and scratching it... almost as if it had thought that my gun was something else... I chased it through several long hedges before I finally killed it."

Both JapansAce and Pypski began to snigger, but soon the snigger had evolved into a full scale laugh. Even the Headmaster, who isn't known for laughing, smiled a little.

"Oh, I see how this is, everyone mocks me! It's not funny!" protested DayBunny.

"Anyway, your test will be a virtual, practical one. You will be escorting a virtual Engineering Student through a virtual cave. It will be filled with virtual Skalari which you must virtually kill with your virtual weapons. If the virtual Engineering Student dies, you virtually fail the virtual practical exam. I will monitor your virtual progress using my virtual computer. Do you virtually understand?"

The trio looked confused - the Headmaster appeared to be weirdly obsessed with virtual things of late... but nevertheless agreed. This was one exam they cannot afford to skip out on, or fail. They observed, however, that the computer was very much real - it was sitting on the Headmaster's desk, and the trio wondered whether he'd gotten carried away with his virtual obsession.

The Headmaster handed them virtual reality helmets, which the three students wore. Immediately they found themselves in a dark cave. They turned around and saw a student dressed in the uniform of Dragon School.

"Are you the Engineering Student?" asked JapansAce.

"Yes, I have to fix several machines inside this cave, it is vital they are fixed, but unfortunately the cave is full of Skalari... please protect me from them!"

With that, the Engineering Student took off running. DayBunny, JapansAce and Pypski hurried after him, eliminating the Skalari as he ran blindly onwards...

Back in the office, the Headmaster watched on, satisfied, as the trio in their virtual reality helmets did various actions with their hands. DayBunny appeared to hold an invisible gun in front of him, mimicing the actions of various skills he had learnt during his time at the School. JapansAce's hands were balled into fists and performing acrobatic movements, which nearly gouged out the Headmaster's eyes. Pypski violently ran around the room bringing her fists down on everything which was in reach, and pretty soon the very real computer was just another virtual image, forever imprinted in the memories of the Headmaster, along with everything else in the room.

After what seemed like an age to the poor Headmaster, the trio took off their helmets.

"How did we- wow, what happened in here?!" asked JapansAce, after she had looked around the office.

"Erm... nothing... it was... a tornado... of cows... very large cows..." The Headmaster tried to make excuses for their actions during the exam. After all, he can hardly punish them for something they did in the name of education: that was the whole point of the two schools, Owl and Dragon, after all.

"Note to self: in future, NEVER hold examinations in my office," he thought. Then he spoke out loud, "Congratulations, without the need to check your results on my ex-real-but-now-virtual computer, I know that you three have a fine grasp of your new skills. I have thoroughly... ahem, enjoyed that most excellent demonstration, and therefore you all pass with flying colours. You have been promoted to the Fourth Grade, and I have a new mission for you, effective immediately."

The trio glanced excitedly between one another. They had all passed, and even better, a new mission right after their promotion!

"You will explore a new area, called the Forest of Silence. Be careful, it is full of Spiders, Mushrooms and other wild beasts. There is also rumour of a cult who has a base there by the name of the Dark Oracles. Look for the local citizens and do everything in your power to assist them. DayBunny's cousin, BlissBunny, will be joining you. She will watch your back to prevent you from being knocked unconscious too often. That will be all."

This was a rather short briefing, even for briefing standards, but the trio were used to this by now. The Dragon Headmaster was not well known for his speeches. They met up with BlissBunny at the front entrance of Dragon School and proceeded to walk to the Forest of Silence.

If only they had not walked... things might not have turned out the way it was... only if they had taken a plane... but it was too late for all that now... far too late.

DayBunny noticed a mysterious well as they neared the entrance to Sunset Pier. It was glowing a weird, eerie green. He approached it with a curious look on his face.

"You guys go ahead, I want to check this out. I'll catch up with you."

"No, don't do it, it doesn't seem right..." his cousin warned him.

"Yeah, Day, come with us, it's the mission that's important! Besides, you've passed that well lots of times and you've never shown an interest in it before!" Pypski yelled after him.

"I'd never noticed it before," replied Day simply. He had already reached the mysterious well, and the next second had stuck his head into it.

"What does he think he's doing?!" a horrified JapansAce said, her toaster at the ready should she need to knock DayBunny away from the well.

"He's crazy... let's go, he said he'll catch up," Pypski told the others.

"But..." protested JapansAce.

"Let's go. It's his own fault if something bad happens to him."

The three of them reluctantly left DayBunny with his head in the well, but they still had time... if only JapansAce had knocked him away from it... maybe that would have changed what was to come... maybe everything could have been prevented...

DayBunny gasped. As soon as he had stuck his head in the well, everything was green. It was somewhat creepy, but nothing could have prepared him for what happened next.

"Who dares intrude?!" boomed a voice. DayBunny jumped, for it was definitely loud enough to wake up things which never can be woken again. Yet somehow, only he could hear it, as if there was some telepathic link between him and the voice.

"W-who's there?" squeaked DayBunny, frightened out of his wits, about to do something very involuntary.

"I am the spirit of the Scorpion King, Overlord of Kasmari. Ever since I was sealed by your Headmaster's ancestors I have been hiding out here. The green light is meant to act as a deterrent to everyone to stay clear and was placed there by the two Headmasters. Fortunately for me, though... it doesn't seem to deter everyone."

The voice laughed an evil laugh, and DayBunny felt a shooting pain in his head. he clutched at it furiously, digging his fingers into his scalp, but the pain did not stop there. DayBunny screamed, but nobody was around to hear him. His friends had already departed for the Forest of Silence and was likely to be in Greenville by now. DayBunny finally could not stand the pain any longer, and at last, he fainted.

But it was still not too late... everything can still be prevented...

After a while, DayBunny woke up to find himself next to the well, which was strange, as he recalled that he had fainted with his head still in the well. Shrugging the whole incident off and thinking that the spirit had been a hallucination due to the fumes from the well, and that he also was eventually knocked out by the same fumes and fell backwards onto the grass, he jumped onto his Hoverboard and quickly rushed to the Forest of Silence to rejoin his friends.

"Ah, there you are, Day! What kept you?" Pypski asked, as soon as he showed up.

"Pretend nothing has happened. Say you are fine." A voice in DayBunny's head said. DayBunny jumped - he had not seen this coming. He realised now that it wasn't the fumes from the well which had knocked him out, but something more sinister... he tried to disobey the voice, but found that he could not... almost as if he had been hypnotised...

"Everything's fine. There's nothing wrong with me. Let's continue the mission," DayBunny found himself saying reluctantly.

"OK then, let's party up and help some civilians," BlissBunny said.

DayBunny felt the spirit become more and more active as he helped more and more people with his friends. At some points, his head was hurting so badly that he had to sit and rest while everyone else hunted Skalari. He didn't like this one bit and blamed the spirit for what happened to him, but the spirit would not reply, and definitely did not leave. He had to sit out while everyone else raided the Dark Oracles in the Abandoned Nest, watch as everyone defeated the leader of the Dark Sorcerers, Nevanth, without him. He felt more and more left out. "If only I hadn't stuck my head in the well," he found himself thinking, "then everything would be fine... I wouldn't be subject to this torture!" This thought, however, was quickly silenced by a force out of his control.

"All right, we're almost done with this area. We still need to investigate a really odd well though, it seems to have green light pouring out from it," Pypski informed everyone.

At this point the spirit inside DayBunny's head suddenly became active once again.

"Volunteer yourself," the spirit told DayBunny, and although his mind worked furiously to resist the spirit's influence, the control over him was too strong, of course DayBunny was helpless to disobey.

"I'll do it," DayBunny found himself saying, against his will.

"Are you sure? You don't look so good..." BlissBunny told him out of concern for his cousin.

"Yes, I'm sure. Let me do it. I can handle it," the spirit said through DayBunny's voice.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Day, let me do it," JapansAce offered.

"No thanks. I'll be fine. Trust me." DayBunny replied with the spirit's words.

"But..." JapansAce began to protest, holding up her toaster should she need to use it. Pypski put out a hand, forcing the toaster down.

"Let him do it. If he thinks he's fine, then there shouldn't be anything to worry about. He can take care of himself, Jace, don't worry. Everyone in my club can take care of themselves. Besides, it's only a little well, nothing to be afraid of."

And that was mostly true... although not here, and definitely not now...

The spirit forced DayBunny to stick his head inside the eeriliy glowing well, and DayBunny had no choice but to oblige. He was immersed in eerie greenness once more, and this time the spirit laughed. It was a maniac's laugh, a laugh of sweet victory. A laugh of success.

"Thank you, DayBunny. You have helped me greatly."

"What... what did I do...?" thought DayBunny, for he was incapable of words. He almost did something involuntary again as the spirit replied. Meanwhile, the spirit continued his explanation...

"Long ago, the ancestors of the two Headmasters - Owl and Dragon - captured the infamous Scorpion King from the heart of a cave in Mara against all the odds. After they captured it, the Scorpion King was cruelly slaughtered and as a result his spirit was bisected. The two ancestors decided on what to do with the spirit. Eventually, they each took one of the two halves and hid each piece inside a different well (don't ask me why; maybe they were too lazy to dig a hole deep enough or something). The well was made to glow green as a warning to future generations to stay clear. As I have said before, this did not deter you. By looking into both of these wells, you allowed both parts of me to posess you, you have reunited the spirit of the Scorpion King. I am now one step closer to ressurrection, and it is all... because... of you."

"Allow you!? I never allowed you anything!" DayBunny retorted inside his head.

"You allowed me entrance into your head when you stared down that well in Fortville, although it is too late now for that discussion. Remember, your own curiosity got you into this, it is not the fault of others, and it will definitely not be easy to escape my grasp."

And with that, DayBunny felt, once again, a burning sensation inside his mind as the two halves of the malevolent spirit fused inside his head. His brain emitted a fierce shockwave which sent his fellow TeamRocket members blasting off into the distance as he himself was also forced out of the well. He fell backwards onto the grass, and he knew no more.

"Day, wake up!" shouted a familiar voice in his ear.

"Are you OK?" asked another.

DayBunny slowly opened his eyes. He could see BlissBunny and Pypski looking down at him. JapansAce was standing not far off, inspecting the well for herself.

"You fainted... what happened?"

"I... don't know... it was the-"

The psychic connection suddenly started again out of the blue.

"The what?" Pypski asked, worried.

"The... toast I ate last night... it must have been the toast... or the toaster..."

Upon hearing this, JapansAce's eyes glared furiously.

"Don't blame my toaster for your abysmal cooking skills!"

DayBunny blacked out again as the toaster hit him squarely between the eyes.

The spirit was already gaining a hold on poor DayBunny. Several days later, when he finally awoke from his JapansAce-induced coma on a healing pad next to a Nurse at school, he felt oddly separate from the world. He gradually grew detached from his friends under the influence of the spirit, and spent the last years of study by himself, as he progressed through the missions of Neo Kansas and finally Mara. As time passed, the spirit became more and more quiet, until finally it seemed to have left him. A year passed, then two, then before he knew it, it had been a full seven years. During this time, he became social again, and went back to being on good terms with his fellow TeamRocket members.

======================Present day...=======================

One day, DayBunny was awoken by a loud hammering on his door.

"Did you hear?! Some farmers have reported missing livestock from their farm! Apparently, a creature attacked their chickens in the night. Farmer Favian can swear some of his are missing!"

DayBunny jumped out of bed with a start, but somehow he was still tired. He opened the door to his dormitory to reveal Kalysto, one hand shoving a newspaper in his face with the headline "Favian's Far-Fetched Fowl Fantasy", the other holding a slice of pie, which looked as if she had just taken a bite from. At the same time, JapansAce emerged from her dormitory next door.

"What's going on, Kaly? Why is there a newspaper in my face?" DayBunny enquired sleepily.

"Read the story!" Kalysto demanded, still eating her slice of pie.

Before DayBunny could move, JapansAce had already snatched the paper from Kalysto's hands and was reading it with wide eyes.

"It says here that a mysterious green creature was reported by Favian last night... and this morning some of his chicks are missing. Professor Lemerande found some remains and analysed them over at Owl School... and you won't believe what she found...!"

"What?" asked DayBunny, whilst Kalysto looked grim.

The reply hit DayBunny like a knife, and he remembered that fateful day seven years ago.

"...scorpion venom." came the reply.

"But there aren't any scorpions in Greenville... something doesn't seem right here," Kalysto said, munching on a new slice of pie from her bag.

"Wait, there's more. Some farmers in Neo Kansas also reported some cows to have disappeared. They also found traces of scorpion venom. The descriptions seem to match... eerie green glow... green eyes... anyway, Professor Wong analysed these remains and cross-referenced it with Professor Lemerande's, and concluded that even the antigens on the venom molecules appear to be identical," JapansAce informed the other two.

"Meaning that the two attacks are likely to be caused by the same creature?" asked Kalysto

"Exactly," JapansAce replied.

DayBunny began to back away. He suspected- no, he KNEW- that he had been the culprit. No doubt it was the result of the Scorpion King's spirit being reunited and telepathically controlling his mind. The Scorpion King was making him kill all these livestock and he had no control over it. He slammed the door and collapsed on his bed, distraught.

Little did he know the Scorpion King's true potential.

"What's gotten into him?" Kalysto asked, staring at the closed door of DayBunny's dormitory and taking the newspaper back from JapansAce.

"No idea, but we should investigate this. Gather everyone we can, Kaly, and tell Owl School to do the same. The only places with livestock are Hillville, Fortville, Greenville and Neo Kansas. If the creature can attack all the sites in one night, then we need to ambush him somewhere, splitting up may be a good idea. Once someone finds it we can tell the others and regroup there. Keep Buddy Link cards at the ready, as we might need it. And whatever you do, don't let it break your ressurrection device in your armour, or you won't regain consciousness until it's fixed, and that might be a while."

To her indignation, JapansAce takes a bite out of Kalysto's slice of pie. Kalysto immediately hits JapansAce in the face with her newspaper.

"I'll do it, but keep off my pie!"

"Fine, fine..." JapansAce walked out of her dormitory and locked the door behind her. Oblivious to her, a toaster sat on her bedside table...

Later that night, the Owls and Dragons had gathered everyone they can possibly find. Hillville and Fortville each had three parties - as JapansAce felt sure this was where the creature was most likely to attack, whereas Greenville and Neo Kansas only had two.

Stationed at Hillville were StrangerD3RK, MagicsOwner, Noemig, Kilai, and Domennico in one party, while Yuumei, xxLilBunny, Kimina, CristinaSollo and Fuchsia were in a second, and KariShadowWolf, HuguesdePayens, XKooriXChan, SnowOwl and CptTatsumiya made up the final five. At Fortville's farms were YoukiKonpaku, Sahara, BlissBunny, Pypski and HidekiHinata as one party, Spycer, Zulfequar, Hatake, AgSilver and Roulette as the second, and Roozaey, Axlrose, MysticLove, Nightwolf and Rhainbow as the final party. In Greenville, the two parties each looked after one of the two farms in case of attack. One party consisted of Kalysto, RiqHoshiro, Confucius, PillBox and RunariaNewbreak, and were guarding Colin's farm; while the other contained Birou, TeaTime, Opacus, Alyse and Nightzs looked after Favian's. Finally, the two parties in Neo Kansas were Tamani, Gemini, NatsukiKuga, Lushen and Chinami, and MaximusArk, Bui, Viewtifulboi, Mirabella and Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Both parties were circling Neo Kansas at opposite ends, keeping an eye out for the creature. JapansAce was wandering partyless by herself in the middle of Neo Kansas, searching all the farms in case the creature tried to attack there, making particularly sure to check the abandoned ones, which had been ravaged by tornadoes.

Suddenly, a flash of green lightning appeared to strike DayBunny's dormitory. Pypski pointed out the flash, but had no idea about its origins.

"Warn the others, quick, I think it's starting. Tell them to get ready and prepare themselves," said Pypski hurriedly.

Sahara immediately took out a Megaphone, placed it to her mouth and broadcast the message for everyone to hear. Unfortunately, the possessed DayBunny also heard it.

A bolt of green lightning flashed close to Pypski, and the next moment Sahara lay unconscious on the ground, her Megaphone now a puddle of molten plastic and electronics. BlissBunny immediately revived her, but the possessed DayBunny was just getting started. Within seconds, five more lightning bolts had struck the area. Some struck the chickens, which immediately vanished in a puff of green smoke, while others came dangerously close to striking the parties on watch. One bolt pierced the armour of YoukiKonpaku and shattered his respawn device. Youki was immediately taken back to school so that the nurses could try to repair it.

Nobody had seen this coming. They all anticipated a tangible creature they could fight, not a supernatural being carried by lightning which they can barely touch at all. Everyone at Fortville began to panic, and some people were knocked unconscious by the friendly fire. Amidst the confusion, the Scorpion King left and targeted a new area.

"Stop!" shouted HidekiHinata eventually, "it's gone."

As the priests ressurrected RunariaNewbreak, AgSilver and everyone else which had been caught in the friendly fire, HidekiHinata used his Megaphone to warn the others about the new discovery.

Had it not been for that crucial day seven years ago... all of this could have been prevented...

The posessed DayBunny targeted every area possible. Despite the Knights' best efforts, they could not prevent casualties both of the livestock and themselves. The Scorpion King was simply too strong and unpredictable for them.

"I'm afraid we'll have to call this a night... we can't do anything against it... We haven't even seen the creature itself, just these bolts of lightning!" said Magics.

"We can't do nothing against lightning..." CristinaSollo said dejectedly.

"It's just too powerful for us... it even managed to take Chinami out in one hit!" Tamani sat down, her head in her hands, looking at the floor.

"NOOOOOOOOO! CHIIIIIIII!" yelled Kilai in despair.

"We can't give up...!" The Momo Overlord told them, taking a bite from a giant Momo fruit stash she was holding in one of her arms, "We have to try, at least!"

Meanwhile in Neo Kansas, JapansAce was making one final check of the farmhouses. It was nearly daybreak and she knew that the creature would have to seek refuge soon. As she walked past a deserted building with boarded-up windows and brick walls, a flash of green lightning struck it. She quickly whirled around and stared cautiously at the house, wondering if she should ask for help using her Megaphone... but she decided against it.

That was her last chance to prevent her destiny.

She pushed open the door quietly and snuck inside, claws at the ready. She looked around the room, but can see nothing so far. The door slammed shut behind her, leaving her in pitch darkness.

An eerie green glow suddenly illuminated the room. JapansAce's eyes quickly darted around. There was a single pillar holding up the ceiling and looked to be a vital support beam for the house. She made a mental note to never touch that pillar at all times. She then glanced around for the source of the glow... and...

She found it behind the pillar. It looked so much like DayBunny, yet so different. His hair was still purple, but apart from his general outer body anatomy the rest of his features resembled a scorpion. He still had visible fingers, but JapansAce could see what looked like half of a claw growing from the back of his hand. His gun was still on his back, glowing a brilliant white, but also growing from was a huge scorpion tail with a giant poison sac. One look at the sting made JapansAce a little queasy. Both of them knew that as long as it stayed near the pillar, she wouldn't dare touch it for fear of bringing down the house on them both. However, this meant that it now had the advantage...

JapansAce immediately reached in her bag for her toaster, but couldn't find it anywhere. She suddenly remembered with a jolt that she had left it on her bedside table. The excitement caused by Kalysto's news article had made her forget all about bringing it with her. She visualised it sitting on the table in her mind's eye with a horrified expression on her face.

Meanwhile, the posessed DayBunny took out his gun and aimed it carefully at JapansAce. The next second, JapansAce had also readied her claws, which glowed a bright blinding yellow. She dashed towards it, but before she can perform another skill she had been frozen by four blasts of cold ice from DayBunny's gun. The Scorpion King then took this chance and slashed at JapansAce with his tail, inflicting a deadly poison on her, which broke the ice encasing her. Finding herself able to move again, JapansAce quickly used Ultimate Evasion and dodged the lightning bolt from the gun. Enraged, the Scorpion King immediately ascended into the sky as a bolt of green lightning.

Thinking that the worst was over and that the Scorpion King had gone, JapansAce breathed a sigh of relief, and took out a Megaphone.

"Help me, I've found the creature, it was in a deserted farmhouse in Neo Kansas, look for the one with brick walls and boarded-up windows! I don't know where it is now, but it might come back!"

She had no idea whether it had worked or not. All she could do now is hope... and hope that the creature, whatever it was, didn't come back.

Outside the house, the Scorpion King had managed gained control of all of the tornadoes of Neo Kansas. The Neo Kansas patrol parties were immediately flung into different maps, falling unconscious as they landed heavily on the ground after their ride.

"T-this is madness! Stop!" DayBunny tried to yell to the Scorpion King now controlling his soul.

"Never!" replied the Scorpion King through his telepathic link, "I will never rest until I am ressurrected once again, and then all of Kasmari will be at my command!"

"But that's going to be impossible!"

"Yes... you're right... I will need a new host if that goal is to be accomplished... someone... more fitting..."

"Wait... what're you saying?!"

"You will help me find a new host, after which your duty will be complete. I shall dispose of you accordingly."

DayBunny fell silent. What had he done...? The thought went over and over in his head, but was quickly vanquished by the Scorpion King's telepathic link.

"Do not think about it too much. It will be nothing. It may not even hurt... who knows... I have never been struck by green lightning before..." The Scorpion King finished with an evil laugh, as he controlled the tornadoes with more and more vigour.

The six parties in Hillville and Fortville had heard JapansAce's cry for help and had set off towards Neo Kansas, but had no idea of what the Scorpion King had done. Upon reaching Neo Kansas they found it to be an impenetrable wall of tornadoes.

"What do we do now?!" Zulfequar asked desperately, clearly panicking.

"We have no choice... maybe we'll to dodge through them if we want to reach Jace...?" Hatake wondered.

"Are you sure about this, Hatake?" Spycer sounded uncertain.

"Do you see another way?" Hatake replied grimly.

JapansAce sat down inside the lonely house, knowing full well if she went outside, the creature would be waiting for her. However, she couldn't remain inside either... but she had to... she had no idea whether her call for help had worked or not, no idea about anything going on outside the brick house she had escaped to... she curled herself in a corner close to the pillar, scolding herself for forgetting her toaster on her bedside table, hoping that the creature would not attack her for fear of bringing down the whole house...

How wrong she was...

The bolt of green lightning struck the house again, passing cleanly through the ceiling, and JapansAce saw it for a brief second before the creature materialised before her very eyes and she was caught off guard. Before she can react, she had been hit by a lightning attack from DayBunny's gun, and the electric shock made her drop her claws involuntarily near the support pillar. The next thing she knew, the creature had withdrawn a bazooka from his bag. It dashed behind JapansAce as a lightning bolt, reforming behind her. The Scorpion King then forced DayBunny to jump up into the air, aim his bazooka at JapansAce, and pull the trigger. A fireball enveloped JapansAce as she was knocked into the far corner of the room, away from her claws, letting out a high-pitched scream.

"Did you hear that...!" StrangerD3RK was the first to notice the faint scream, dodging past several tornadoes.

"It sounded like Jace..." Kilai observed, as a tornado narrowly missed her

"We have to hurry!"

The beast quickly transformed back into the lightning bolt and hurled itself at JapansAce, striking the pillar as it went, which, thankfully, remained standing. The bolt struck JapansAce cleanly in the chest, knocking her forcefully into the wall. JapansAce screamed again and fell into a heap on the floor, utterly defenceless, as the creature rematerialised, and DayBunny aimed his gun at her. Despite JapansAce's pleads to what she thought was DayBunny, and DayBunny's pleads through the telepathic link, the ruthless spirit has all control and forces DayBunny to pull the trigger, destroying JapansAce's respawn device, sending her into a coma, as the first rays of daylight passed through the gaps between the boarded windows...

The spirit eyed the giant mob of people gathered at a huge hole they had blasted in the wall near the pillar through DayBunny's eyes, looking for a suitable new host. It made DayBunny's eyes dart quickly between one person and the next - Kalysto, Kilai, StrangerD3RK, Hatake, BlissBunny... until it finally landed on Pypski. Pypski took one look at the spirit and her eyes widened in shock. She broke her gaze and shook her head slightly, then looked back at the spirit again.

The spirit forced meaningless words through DayBunny's mouth, and then made him take out his bazooka and shoot the already weakened pillar. Under the cover of everyone's confusion and horror, the creature transforms into the green lightning bolt and escapes the house, grabbing Pypski with it. The Scorpion King deposits Pypski on top of a pyramid in a desert, surrounded by Jackals and Mummies, circling the base, frustrated that they cannot attack.

"You are no longer needed," the spirit said to DayBunny via the telepathic link.

The Scorpion King emerges from DayBunny as a cloud of green mist and fuses with Pypski's mind, forming a new telepathic link. In doing so, the spirit releases the energy of its previous link as a massive shockwave which dazes both Pypski and DayBunny and throws them off the pyramid in opposite directions. The spirit, controlling Pypski's body, walks away with its new host, until its eerie glow fades into the night, while leaving DayBunny lying dazed at the bottom of the pyramid, as the circling undead begin to crowd around him...


	3. Chapter 3

**3. Greater Revelations**

"Do you think she'll be all right?" asked a worried voice.

JapansAce laid on the healing pad next to Nurse Beatrice in Hillville, still in a deep coma. The Nurse and Dr. Chow surrounded her; Dr. Chow had opened her armour and revealed the respawn device over her heart, completely shattered by a combination of the Scorpion King's attacks. Many of the people present at the patrol parties of the previous night were still in bed and too tired to wake up.

"It looks really bad... whatever did this to her wanted to kill her."

"But you can fix it... right, doc?" Nurse Beatrice asked, dreading the reply.

"...yes, but it will take time. I mustn't get distracted during this operation."

Meanwhile, over at Fortville, Professor Wong had already finished fixing YoukiKonpaku's respawn device. He placed it back into Youki's armour with a satisfied look.

"There, all done. He should be fine now. That bolt of lightning did some serious damage to it though, and it'll be a while before he wakes up." Professor Wong remarked.

"So will my daddy be OK?" asked Birou, close to tears.

"He'll be fine," Professor Wong reassured Birou, who immediately hugged Youki, and then Professor Wong.

"TjAL UPI SP ICJ!" Birou cried, holding on to Professor Wong as if she would fall into a crevice to her death should she ever release him.

"Erm... excuse me?" gasped Professor Wong not only out of surprise, but also because his lung capacity was being gradually reduced as he exhaled by the anaconda now hugging him.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH, asterisk!" Birou corrected herself. "My LSD is making everything I say sound weird, QQ! Is there something I can do for you?"

"You could stop hugging me before I asphyxiate," Professor Wong gasped. "and you might want to get your LSD addiction checked out..."

"It's Lilliyan's Speech Disease! It's not a drug!" protested Birou as she released Professor Wong in indignation and glared at him. She sat down next to her father and began to care for him. Sahara walked up to Birou, sat down next to her and began to comfort her.

DayBunny laid in the desolate desert, his eyes glassy, the moon reflected in them as the undead slowly walked away. He had no recollection of what happened. He remembers the mist emerging from his own body and go inside Pypski's, but what happened next, he had no clue. He tried to move, but found himself paralysed, although it was not of fear. Suddenly, a holographic panel appeared in front of his face, asking whether he would like to respawn at the current map, or on the spot using a Revival Marble. Wanting to avoid the mobs, he chose to respawn in the Knight Shelter. His equipment looked a little worse for wear and he could feel breezes where he didn't feel before, but that was nothing a good Mecher can't fix. He quickly took out a small silver card and, after casting his mind around for the incantation required to activate it, finally muttered something underneath his breath, and left the lonely desert behind. As he vanished, an ominous green glow emanated from his body, which seemed to linger over the spot where he had stood...

"How did it get like this?!" said Dr. Chow, holding the shattered remains of JapansAce's respawn device in his hand. Tamani stood nearby with a few others with a shocked expression on her face.

"I'm not actually sure myself..."

"One single bullet is nowhere near enough to cause this much damage... there must have been something else... but in any case, I'm afraid this is beyond repair."

"So... there's nothing you can do?" asked Tamani, on the verge of tears.

"Did I say that?" Dr. Chow looked at Tamani. "There is one more thing, but it will be difficult... we'd have to make a new one from scratch. In the meantime, keep her in a safe spot."

"What do you need?" Hatake quizzed the Doctor.

"Well... making this won't be easy... it would be best to obtain a pre-existing one, but that would mean putting someone else into a permanent coma. Nobody in their right minds would volunteer for such a thing..."

Pypski appeared out of nowhere outside the Main Building of her school. A few seconds later, DayBunny appeared beside her. The two exchanged a glance, and Pypski walked calmly towards the gym, where Viewtifulboi was doing his daily exercises. DayBunny headed to his bank account and reluctantly withdrew some Mars for the Mecher to fix his gear, then followed Pypski into the gym.

As Pypski entered the gym, the commentator announced via a megaphone on top of the two school buildings, "Owl Viewtifulboi has taken down Dragon Lushen!" Pypski approached the pair as Lushen got up and shook hands with Viewtifulboi, who did so reluctantly. A voice inside Pypski's head told her to wait for the right moment before making her move, as Lushen and Viewtifulboi began to talk.

"Don't think you can get away THAT easily..."

The voice rang as clear as day in DayBunny's head, and he jumped. How did the Scorpion King keep its hold over him?! He had seen the mist leaving his body and merging with Pypski's. Surely that meant he was free...?

"Did you think you were free...? Did you think that I had left you for good...?"

DayBunny struggled with the Scorpion King. It was just a voice inside his head, after all... he was still himself... he could no longer turn into the half-scorpion... that was Pypski's job now...

"It is no use to struggle. You cannot resist my control. All the victims I posess I am able to control whenever at my will. Give up now. It is hopeless."

But DayBunny did not stop resisting, but found himself getting more and more tired the more he resisted. Eventually, out of exhaustion, he collapsed on the floor of the gym...

The spirit now turned to Pypski, who was watching Lushen and Viewtifulboi continue their conversation. After what seemed like weeks, Lushen finally got up and walked away, greeting Pypski as he vanished into the Dragon School's Main Building. The spirit made Pypski greet Lushen back, and seized its chance.

Viewtifulboi saw Pypski walking towards him as he stretched his muscles. He glared at her malevolently.

"What're you doing here?!"

Viewtifulboi's eyes widened in shock as Pypski glowed an ominous green, and readied his guns. He saw Pypski adjust a setting on her armour, which temporarily increased their defensive capabilities. Without a second's hesitation Viewtifulboi held both of his guns together in front of him and blasted a giant golden beam towards Pypski.

Pypski was blinded by the beam, and was forced to slow down. Viewtifulboi took his chance and quickly adjusted his guns, which gave him a greater chance to strike where it will hurt most, resulting in critical wounding. Another quick adjust, and his attack speed increased by more than a third. A final adjustment meant that he could now use his skills more frequently. Viewtifulboi had to act fast - the latter two adjustments did not last long. As Pypski recovered from his initial attack, she quickly dashed towards Viewtifulboi with the force of a falling planet, but Viewtifulboi had dodged her completely. He jumped up in the air and shot bullets down towards Pypski, disabling her skills. Pypski struck Viewtifulboi over and over repeatedly with her giant hammer, but could not hit him. Viewtifulboi raised both of his guns, one after the other, and fired three quick shots from each, pushing Pypski away from him. This was quickly followed by another giant golden beam...

The spirit was frustrated - it tried desperately to use Pypski to reach Viewtifulboi, but every time it did, Viewtifulboi would render Pypski helpless and knock her back again. This continued for several more rounds... until...

Viewtifulboi felt sure he would win. He could see that Pypski had been weakened; she was stumbling around, trying to attack him, and he remained untouched, the Recovery Marble on his guns healing his wounds. Pypski's hammer, Viewtifulboi saw, also had a recovery marble, but hers did not seem to heal her that often. Viewtifulboi jumped up in the air, took out a bazooka, and a fireball hurled towards Pypski, engulfing her. The spirit quickly made Pypski adjust a setting on her armour, near the location of the respawn device. The device generated a golden focefield around her and her hammer glowed with fire. She jumped up and hurled a massive fireball towards Viewtifulboi. Before the latter can react, the spirit played its final card, and Pypski's body glowed green.

It transformed Pypski into the half-scorpion creature.

On the other side of the gym, out of view of Viewtifulboi, DayBunny, glowing a faint green, stirred.

Viewtifulboi stumbled back, still on fire from Pypski's previous attack. He stared at the creature in a state of shock. He tried to incapacitate it with the giant golden beam, but found that he could not. He tried to use more of the skills he had learnt at school, but his body resisted out of tiredness. Left with no choice, Viewtifulboi was forced to run for his life, holding his guns by his side. If only he could escape the gym, he would be safe... all he needed to do was go into the Main Building... and he would escape... the creature could not attack him in his own school...

Or so he thought.

The creature transformed into a bolt of green lightning and tried to strike Viewtifulboi repeatedly, but Viewtifulboi managed to dodge them all, and bolt after bolt of green lightning struck the walls of the gym. The commentator, in his high booth, screamed and ran around blindly as the booth shook from the force of impact of the lightning bolts.

Viewtifulboi ran for his life. He ran into the Main Building and to his shock the creature followed. The bolt of lightning struck the wall opposite the door, which closed with a loud bang, leaving Viewtifulboi was in complete darkness. All he could see was the eerie green glow of the outline of the half-scorpion Pypski, chasing him.

Viewtifulboi ran along the corridors of the dark main building, the lights having been short-circuited many years ago by a freak accident. The only light came at regular intervals through the windows, but was not enough to relieve the building of its darkness. Nevertheless, Viewtifulboi found a staircase and immediately ran up it, guns still in his hands, not daring to look behind him. Suddenly, he stumbled.

A gunshot was heard as the door to the Main Building was blasted open. DayBunny stood silhouetted against the light pouring in from the entrance, glowing a faint green.

Viewtifulboi cursed under his breath. He had shot himself in the knee in his absent-mindedness, and he could hear the Scorpion King behind him, approaching ever closer. Limping up the rest of the staircase, he hurriedly opened a window, ready to jump into the bush below if he had to, to escape the horror approaching behind him.

Out of the shadows Viewtifulboi saw a burst of brilliant white and before he knew it, he had been stunned. DayBunny stepped out of the shadows with his gun aiming at Viewtifulboi's respawn device. Viewtifulboi furiously fired bullet after bullet at DayBunny, while an eerie green glow approached him from behind...

Just as Viewtifulboi found he could move again, four bursts were fired by DayBunny, encasing Viewtifulboi in ice. The Scorpion King, controlling Pypski, slashed Viewtifulboi with its tail, poisoning him and breaking his ice prison. DayBunny continued to pump bullets into Viewtifulboi, who felt his strength fading fast. He tried to jump out of the window, but Pypski brought down her hammer hard on top of Viewtifulboi's head, and Viewtifulboi immediately fainted.

A final burst of lightning from DayBunny's gun forced a compartment in Viewtifulboi's breastplate to open. His respawn device was flung into the air, and Viewtifulboi himself toppled out of the window, into the bushes below. His respawn device landed intact several feet away.

Pypski transformed into a bolt of green lightning and escaped from the main building, while DayBunny felt the spirit releasing him from its grasp, and he remembered nothing.

The group in Hillville had not noticed Viewtifulboi's fall from the main building. They were too busy listening to Dr. Chow and too worried about obtaining a replacement respawn device for JapansAce. Tamani and sat on the floor, playing with some grass, while Hatake, Kilai, StrangerD3RK, Birou and Kalysto formed a circle around the Doctor and Mecher Melanie, Birou having left Sahara in charge of looking after her father, Kalysto munching on an apparently endless stack of pies in her bag.

DayBunny emerged from the door of the main building and walked around aimlessly. Suddenly, he saw Viewtifulboi's respawn device. Having no recollection of the incident, he did not realise who its true owner was. He picked it up, and decided to head back to his dormitory, craving for his daily hot shower - for some reason, he had forgotten to have one today...

As he approached the entrance to the gym, he heard a voice call his name.

"What've you got there, Day?" Hatake yelled.

"Oh, this?" DayBunny walked over to the group surrounding Dr. Chow and held the device in his hands.

"Perfect! That's just what Jace needs!" the Doctor said, his eyes seemed to glow with excitement.

"It is...?" DayBunny asked, puzzled.

Dr. Chow grabbed the device from DayBunny's outstretched hand and gave it to Nurse Beatrice, who quickly ran back to the healing pad and installed it into JapansAce's breastplate.

"There we go, she should be fine now! It might take a while for her to wake up, and she won't remember much of the events before her device was destroyed. The best plan you have is to take her back to her dormitory before she wakes up,and convince her by any means possible that she overslept. Has anyone seen her toaster, by the way?"

"No, she left it on her bedside table," Kalysto replied through a mouthful of pie.

"Very well. You know what to do."

Much of the day passed uneventfully. Pypski was nowhere to be seen and nobody knew where she could be. The spirit seemed to have left DayBunny, at least for now, and JapansAce was still sleeping in her dormitory, slightly dazed and confused...

Later that night, a dark silhouette walked up to the back gates of Owl School. JapansAce was still sleeping, along with everyone else. The mysterious intruder quickly entered and went to the location of a particular bush. The silhouette reached into the bush and grabbed something within it. All of a sudden it began to glow an eerie green which only lasted for the briefest of moments before it faded away. The silhouette looked at the bush one last time, satisfied with its work, and Pypski walked away with a gleam of malice in her eyes, vanishing into the night beyond the Owl School's back gate, leaving the bush behind her, from which a green glow started to emanate from within...


	4. Chapter 4

**4. Research Attempt**

JapansAce finally awoke the next morning. Having no recollection of the previous week's events, she got dressed into her striker gear as usual and exited her room.

DayBunny's dormitory door was open, which was strange - he never left his door open, unless you count the bathroom door while he showered in the morning. Apparently, it helped the acoustics of his singing, but JapansAce felt sure she knew the true reason behind his strange actions. Shaking her head to get rid of these disturbing thoughts, she went into the school grounds, looking for DayBunny. After having no luck in the rest of the Dragon school, she decided to try Hillville.

As she exited the dormitories, a flash of crackling green lightning escaped from DayBunny's room...

She did not realise that she was using somebody else's respawn device. Neither did she realise that the person who owned the device was no longer in a coma...

As she entered the gym, the commentator announced, "Owl Viewtifulboi has taken down Dragon Lushen! This is his second win in a row! Viewtifulboi now leads Lushen two wins to zero!"

She paid no attention to the commentator and continued to walk forwards through the gym, until she was blinded by a beam of yellow light: Viewtifulboi had attacked her from the side, disabling her skills. JapansAce quickly tried to run - she only wanted to reach Hillville to look for her friends, but Viewtifulboi seemed to have no intention of letting her pass without a fight as he fired barrage after barrage of bullets towards her. When everything seemed useless, the storm of bullets suddenly stopped. She turned on the spot, looking for Viewtifulboi, and found him engaged in combat with another Striker from TeamRocket. The Striker dodged all of Viewtifulboi's bullets with expertise, and with a final slash of his claws and a dull thunk from JapansAce's toaster, Viewtifulboi collapsed.

"Dragon IamUsui has taken down Owl Viewtifulboi and has broken his winning streak!" the commentator commented through the megaphones.

JapansAce quickly looked between Usui and Viewtifulboi - the latter seemed to give off a slightly green glow which made her slightly uneasy. She also noticed something else unusual... but she brushed it off as she picked up her toaster from the floor and put it back into her bag. Surely, it was nothing. This has to be one of Viewtifulboi's practical jokes again. A person can't physically walk around without their respawn device... could they? Wouldn't they be in a deep coma...?

"Thanks, I-" JapansAce began, but was interrupted by a yell of warning from Usui.

"Watch out!"

JapansAce whirled around in time to see a familiar face dashing towards her. She instinctively reached for her toaster, but the mysterious Striker had now reached arm's distance from JapansAce. In one rapid fluid motion JapansAce brought the toaster around, and it connected with the side of the Striker's head. The Striker immediately collapsed, having been knocked out. JapansAce looked closely at the Striker and noticed that he, too, glowed slightly green.

"Dragon JapansAce has unorthodoxly taken down Dragon Lushen!" announced the commentator.

"Thanks, Usui," gasped JapansAce. "What was that about?"

Meanwhile, at Hillville, a group of people had gathered at the base of a familiar-looking cherry blossom tree.

"OK, let's gather what we know about this creature that's been attacking us," announced Kilai.

"All we know is that it travels on bolts of green lightning, what else do we know?" xxLilBunny asked.

"It likes attacking livestock," replied Magics.

"Nobody has even seen the creature apart from Jace, and she can't remember anything about it," Birou added.

"All everyone else has seen is flashes of deadly green lightning..." said Sahara, as she remembered her molten Megaphone. Thankfully, Dr. Chow had supplied her with a replacement.

"Actually, some of us caught a glimpse of it two days ago in the house it destroyed. It resembles some sort of..." Yuumei paused, looking for a suitable word to describe the creature.

At that moment the doors to the main building opened, and JapansAce and Usui emerged.

"Everyone, be careful not to mention too much of this to Jace. Remember, she can't remember anything of the incident," Tamani warned the group as the pair approached.

"Hi Jace, hi Usui, how are you two today? I'm glad you're feeling better." DayBunny greeted the pair enthusiastically.

"Oh, hi, Day, there you are~! Your dormitory door was open," JapansAce informed him.

DayBunny looked puzzled. "I was sure I closed it when I left after my shower this morning... that's weird..."

"Usui, come here for a second, we need to talk," CristinaSollo said.

Usui looked startled, but agreed nevertheless. JapansAce looked glumly after him. Everybody seemed to be ignoring her... even DayBunny seemed reluctant to talk to her... what could she possibly have done...?

"Is my daddy OK?" asked Birou. This was all JapansAce heard before she walked out of earshot of everyone else.

As she walked solitarily through Hillville images of what she had observed in the gym flashed back into her mind. "Impossible," she told herself. "Nobody can walk around after their respawn device is broken... the electrical surge would send them into a deep coma..." however, this still did not explain what she had saw...

Back near the cherry blossom tree, StrangerD3RK had come up with a clever plan to study the mysterious creature.

"If the creature comes after livestock, we could use Birou's cow as an bait for it...!"

Upon hearing this, Birou protested as loud as she can.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOT MY COW!" she began to sob.

"Don't worry...! You'll be riding it, and you can lure it into our trap!" the Momo Overlord reassured her.

"Assuming this plan works, Derky, how do you plan to catch a bolt of lightning?" Magics asked with a disbelieving tone.

"Simple...!" StrangerD3RK said with a grin.

JapansAce carried on walking. It seemed as if her friends didn't want her any more. She tried to recall what she had done to offend them, but there was a gaping hole in her memory...

As she walked through the desolate ruins of Ghost Town, she saw something ahead giving off an eerie green glow. Whatever it was leaned against the handrails of the bridge leading to Fog Village. As she approached it slowly, cautiously, the green glow fades.

Pypski turned around and saw JapansAce, and grinned. JapansAce nervously grinned back - this wasn't a place you'd normally find Pypski hanging out. She was usually in Mara, willing to raid a dungeon. However, she was glad that at least one of her friends had not ignored her, and shrugged it off. She walked up towards Pypski on the bridge.

Pypski grinned more broadly, and to JapansAce's horror began to glow the same eerie green glow she had seen earlier. She stretched out her hand, almost touching JapansAce... her eyes transfixed, as a green mist seemed to emerge from Pypski's body...

JapansAce quickly grabbed her toaster and hit Pypski with it. Pypski stumbled back, dazed. The mist retreated back into her body and JapansAce sprinted away from her. As she nearly reached the other side of the bridge, she saw two others there - Viewtifulboi and Lushen. She remembered them from the gym a few hours previously, and, noticing the gaping hole in Viewtifulboi's breastplate, her worst fears were confirmed...

Pypski, Viewtifulboi and Lushen closed in on JapansAce, and she knew what she had to do, for there was only one way out...

She launched herself off the Bridge of Fog and plumetted into the river below. Pypski, Viewtifulboi and Lushen watched in amazement and disbelief. Then, suddenly, Pypski's hammer glowed with a raging fire and she hurled a giant fireball into the river at the place where JapansAce had fell into it. A large cloud of steam hid the trio from view, and when it dissipated, Viewtifulboi was peppering the surface of the river with ripples as he shot wave after wave of bullets after JapansAce. Lushen slashed his claws in midair and ice-cold shockwaves crashed through the river, freezing anything they came into contact with.

"There. I doubt there's anything alive in there any more," said the distorted voice of Pypski, under the Scorpion King's influence.

With that, Pypski vanished in a flash of green lightning. Lushen and Viewtifulboi walked off into the distance until they too disappeared.

Underneath the bridge, JapansAce shivered as she heard the retreating footsteps of Lushen and Viewtifulboi and heaved a sigh of relief. She swam to the opposite shore, boarded a plane and withdrew into the safety of her dormitory. She took out her toaster from her bag and placed it on the bedside table, collapsed, and fell asleep, feeling depressed and a bit scared.

"So, does everyone know the plan?" asked StrangerD3RK.

"NO! BAD PLAN! YOUCHANGEYOURPLAN!" screamed Birou desperately, while everyone else agreed with StrangerD3RK.

"Birou and her cow act as bait for the creature, and once it's targeting you, lure it towards this container here-" KariShadowWolf pointed towards a large glass container with a giant metal rod sticking into it. "The metal rod will act as a lightning conductor and the two layers of glass are separated by a vacuum. Once it's inside, Bui, Nightzs and KnightofHan will replace the metal rod with a cork, and the creature will be trapped!"

Birou was doubtful of this plan, more out of safety for her cow and herself than its effectiveness.

"NO! I REFUSE! YOU'LL NEVER GET MY COW!" she protested, and, without thinking, rode her cow into the distance.

The group stared after her, until two words escaped from Magics's lips.

"Get ready."

Nobody had noticed that DayBunny had gone missing...

Deep in the heart of a cave in Mara, Pypski, Viewtifulboi and Lushen sat inside a large chamber.

"I can't believe this, Day's going to be late AGAIN. Why doesn't he take his shower earlier?!" Pypski growled. DayBunny always seemed to do this, and it was getting on her nerves.

"Late? I don't think so..." DayBunny emerged from the shadows. "I have heard of their plan. Birou will lure you to a huge glass container with a lightning conductor, where they will then replace it with a cork so that you cannot escape."

Pypski had anticipated this. She grinned as a plan began forming inside her head almost immediately.

"Let them capture me. They must think that their plan has worked. I have a surprise for them..." the Scorpion King siad through Pypski's distorted voice, as her outline glowed green...

Birou escaped from the others, riding her cow. How dare they suggest that she acted as bait! Nobody touches her poor cow except herself! She slowed her cow down to a trot and looked around her. It was getting late, and too late she realised that her rash actions had meant that she had unknowingly set the hated plan into action. she muttered under her breath as a flash of green streaked overhead...

With an almighty boom, a bolt of green lightning narrowly missed her cow. Birou screamed and immediately ran back to Owl School. She swerved her cow left and right as bolts of green lightning rained down upon her, narrowly missing her. One struck in front of her cow and almost hit its nose, but Birou swerved just in time. Suddenly, within sight of the container, which was located near some bushes and hedges, Birou and her cow were suddenly frozen. She looked around her, panicking, and saw a green silhouette not that far away - it had frozen her using ice shockwaves. Two more silhouettes were closing in behind her as well as she stared helplessly around her, unable to move. The green lightning struck the ground a final time and materialised into the creature, and the four enclosed her into a square, and began to close in on her, although she could still not see the silhouettes properly.

"No, we must let her survive! She must lure me into the trap!" the Scorpion King demanded using the telepathic link. "She must not remember the three of you. We still need the three of you to spy on them. Do not let her blow your cover!"

Birou couldn't believe her luck as the three silhouettes suddenly began walking away, and vanished into the night. She turned to face Pypski, who transformed into the green bolt of lightning and hurled herself towards Birou. Birou quickly dodged it and began running back to the container.

"Just as I had planned..." thought the Scorpion King, chasing Birou, almost hitting her but never quite. It was all under control...

"She's coming!" shouted Gemini, pointing at Birou approaching in the distance, dodging repeated bolts of green lightning.

"Everyone into positions!" Kilai said, urgently.

Everyone fled behind a hedge except Bui, Nightzs and KnightofHan, who hid behind a bush closer to the container.

Birou ran past the container and with an almighty BOOM the lightning struck the metal rod. The half-scorpion creature materialised inside the glass container and everybody saw it. Nightzs, KnightofHan and Bui immediately jumped on top of the container and tried to take out the metal rod to replace it with a cork, while everyone emerged from the hedge, apparently victorious...

As soon as their hands touched the metal rod, the creature immediately transformed into the bolt of green lightning and struck it. The electric shock sent the three people flying off the rod and landed hard on the ground. Try as they might nobody can prepare themselves for what happened next...

The maniacal, evil laugh of the Scorpion King resounded in the night sky. The metal rod crackled with green electricity which concentrated at its upper end. The next second, the creature released itself from the rod with another shockwave as it escaped as a bolt of green lightning into the night sky. Both the glass rod and the container exploded with an almighty blast. The crowd screamed and Birou ran for cover with her cow as shards of metal rod, broken glass and pieces of a giant rubber cork flew in all directions...

In the large chamber of the secret cave in the desert, the Scorpion King laughed maliciously through Pypski as it sat with DayBunny, Viewtifulboi and Lushen. This was its first victory, and hopefully, the first of many.


	5. Chapter 5

**5. The Plan**

Owl School was in a scene of devastation. StrangerD3RK's plan to capture the Scorpion King had been outwitted, and people were almost severely injured in the process. It had been her plan... as she emerged from behind a tree, she blamed herself for what hapened... she felt completely responsible. She had almost killed her friends in a moment of careless planning...

Magics had dived into the nearest bush just in time, which had been peppered with shards of glass, metal and cork. He emerged, a bit bruised but otherwise unhrt. A few moments later, the others emerged from various bushes and behind houses and lampposts. Birou and her cow cautiously looked on from inside their hedge.

"That was my entire college fund!" He protested angrily. He had volunteered to make the glass container, and was now furious that the plan had not worked.

"Calm yourself, Magics, the creature is devious, it's almost as if it knew..." Kilai reassured him.

"But what else have we learnt about it?! Absolutely NOTHING." Magics protested.

"That's not true, Magics, we know that it's a devious son of a-" KnightofHan began.

"That's enough, Han," StrangerD3RK interrupted him. "This is my fault, it was my plan!" she was on the verge of tears, and reached into her bag for a Momo fruit.

"This isn't your fault, Derky, your plan was really good!" Kari reassured her. "She must have found out about it..."

"I'm going to take an walk..." StrangerD3RK calmed down slightly. "I need to clear my head..."

Everyone watched as StrangerD3RK walked away. It was nearly dawn, and day would soon come. To the best of their knowledge, the creature doesn't attack during the day. Nobody felt the need to follow her as she disappeared from view...

"Guys..." said CristinaSollo suddenly, looking all around her.

"...has anyone seen DayBunny?"

The door to the Main Building opened suddenly, and a silhouette appeared. It glowed green for the briefest of moments, before the glow faded as the Scorpion King released its control, and the silhouette can no longer be told apart from the darkness which surrounded it.

"I'm right here," DayBunny said, emerging from the main building of Owl School.

"Where've you been, Day?" AgSilver asked concernedly.

Something stirred in the back of DayBunny's mind...

"Sorry, I had to take my daily hot shower."

Except that it was 5AM in the morning.

"So, did I miss anything?"

StrangerD3RK walked down the path leading to James Isle from the Owl School's back gate, trying to forget what she felt responsible for. As she walked, the first rays of sunlight peeked over the hill. She sighed out of relief - the creature wouldn't dare attack anyone during the day - the chances of being spotted were way too high. She shivered, not from the morning's chill, as she remembered what she had seen in the glass container not so long ago. The half-scorpion Pypski, the deformed claws growing from the back of her hand, the large muscular tail with the giant poison gland...

Suddenly, a flash of green streaked overhead and the next moment StrangerD3RK heard the unmistakable snapping of a twig. She looked around, a little uneasy, before she realised that she herself had snapped it with her foot. She breathed a sigh of relief. She had been so sure that it was someone else...

As she approached James Isle, she heard another twig snap. She looked down again, but saw only her foot. Feeling a bit uneasy, she glanced quickly around her... but saw nothing.

StrangerD3RK kept walking down the lonely path, slightly more aware of her surroundings, bathed in the dull golden glow of the morning sun...

"Derky!" said a familiar voice behind her.

StrangerD3RK turned around, searching for the owner of the voice she knew so well. She thought she saw a faint green glow of a silhouette behind a tree, but it quickly faded into nothing and was replaced with the green grass of the hill.

"Derky!" shouted the voice again, from the opposite direction. "Over here!"

StrangerD3RK turned on the spot again. She was really nervous now, sweating profusely, she took a Momo fruit out of her bag and started to cuddle it for comfort, staring at the new location of this voice...

Something emerged from the shadows of a nearby tree to the left of StrangerD3RK, who turned around to face it, almost trembling, but then she relaxed, and took a bite out of the Momo fruit she was holding.

JapansAce walked towards StrangerD3RK, as she approached, StrangerD3RK could see a smile on her face. StrangerD3RK calmed down slightly, longing for a chat with her, glad that she was finally awake. JapansAce casually extracted her toaster from her bag, and held it under her arm.

"Jace...!" StrangerD3RK said enthusiastically, "you're awake...!"

JapansAce grinned. She was pleased to see StrangerD3RK not ignoring her any more, like everybody else had done the previous day, when she had emerged from the gym with Usui.

"Hi Derky!" JapansAce replied. "Yes, of course I'm awake, why wouldn't I be?"

StrangerD3RK suddenly remembered Tamani's warning from yesterday about JapansAce's memory loss, and quickly changed the subject.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you Derky," replied JapansAce. "What about you?"

"Fine," StrangerD3RK told JapansAce, making a cute cat's face.

"Do it! NOW!" a voice inside JapansAce's head urged her.

"But... but... no!" JapansAce tried to protest, but was silenced by the Scorpion King's telepathic link.

JapansAce laughed, then suddenly glowed an eerie green. StrangerD3RK quickly spotted this and, as the Scorpion King raised JapansAce's toaster, had taken out her gun and shot four painful blasts of ice towards her. Frozen and furious, the Scorpion King tried to aim JapansAce's toaster at StrangerD3RK, but as soon as the ice prison broke, StrangerD3RK had stunned JapansAce with lightning from her gun, and had shot a fireball at her the next second. She fired bullet after bullet at JapansAce until she finally collapsed.

Back in hillville, the notice board suddenly announced "Owl StrangerD3RK has taken down Dragon JapansAce."

"What is she thinking?!" Magics said, evidently shocked.

"Jaaace," sobbed Cristina. She couldn't believe that her friend had done this, but she couldn't have done it without good reason... right...?

Meanwhile, StrangerD3RK panted heavily. She could not believe what had just happened. JapansAce had attacked her out of the blue... she walked on slowly, thinking that the reason behind the attack was her failed plan. She took out a momo again and began cuddling it.

Another streak of lightning flashed overhead and the possessed Pypski suddenly materialised in front of StrangerD3RK, blocking her path. StrangerD3RK attacked without hesitation this time, stunning Pypski and pushing her away with a thick barrage of bullets. The Scorpion King tried to strike StrangerD3RK in the form of a lightning bolt, but was blocked. Pypski rematerialised in front of her and started to striker StrangerD3RK with her hammer. Meanwhile, JapansAce stirred behind StrangerD3RK, and before she had time to turn around, a surge of adrenaline passed through JapansAce's body. StrangerD3RK quickly knocked Pypski back and stunned her with a bolt of white lightning, then whirled around and froze JapansAce with four blasts from her gun as JapansAce dashed towards her, stopping her dead moments before she would have struck. StrangerD3RK quickly backed away from JapansAce and waited patiently as Pypski readied herself again, and JapansAce's ice prison shattered...

Both JapansAce and Pypski dashed towards her at the same time, but StrangerD3RK was ready. She stepped to the side at the last second and the two crashed into each other. StrangerD3RK quickly jumped back, knocking them both back with a fierce bullet barrage at the same time, while they were still dazed on the ground. She then fired her lightning bolt again, stunning both of them, and quickly took out her bazooka, jumped into the air and engulfed the pair in a fireball.

The Scorpion King realised that this wasn't the best strategy to adopt...

StrangerD3RK saw JapansAce stumble away in what she thought was fear, and focused her fire solely on Pypski. She could see Pypski's strength fading fast, and was confident that she would be defeated... until...

Pypski adjusted something near her respawn device again and a golden forcefield surrounded her. She then transformed into the half-scorpion creature. StrangerD3RK was shocked - she had not seen this coming. She fired wave after wave of bullets at Pypski, knocking her back. Even though she was shocked, she knew that she could win. All she had to do was to keep Pypski far enough... that's all...

Suddenly, StrangerD3RK heard a clang and her head exploded with pain. She fell to the ground, dazed, as she looked around for the culprit. She saw JapansAce's toaster on the floor beside her, and JapansAce some distance away, surrounded by a green aura...

Pypski lashed out with her sting and StrangerD3RK felt the venom coursing through her veins. The next thing she knew, almost as if it had happened in slow motion, she had been struck by a bolt of lightning fired from Pypski's hand which narrowly missed her respawn device. She fainted, her bag of Momo fruits falling to the ground. Pypski and JapansAce carried her away, vanishing with a flash of green lightning.

The bag of Momo fruits laid forlornly on the path, illuminated by the early morning sun, surrounded only by the trees on either side...

==================**The previous night...**======================

DayBunny arrived at the heart of a mysterious cave in a desert of eternal night, and told everyone what he had heard from the group of people gathered under the cherry blossom tree in Hillville. Upon hearing this, Pypski began formulating a plan at once.

"Let them capture me. They must think that their plan has worked. I have a surprise for them..." the Scorpion King siad through Pypski's distorted voice, as her outline glowed green...

As the others stood to leave, the Scorpion King stopped them.

"Wait. There's more."

Viewtifulboi, Lushen and DayBunny stopped in their tracks and turned to face Pypski.

"We need a hostage."

"Who do you recommend?" DayBunny asked. He liked the sound of this plan.

"We have to capture their leader. Once we do that the rest of them will fall."

"Why capture? Why not convert?" Lushen looked puzzled.

Pypski sighed exasperatedly. "Because, if we convert, there would be no reason for them to knock on our doors. By leaving a hostage, they'll come looking for that hostager. That's when we seize our chance."

"So who are we going to capture?"

"We have two options," came the Scorpion King's reply.

"And they are?" Viewtifulboi asked.

"One of them is MagicsOwner," the Scorpion King answered slyly. "The other... is StrangerD3RK."

"That'll be difficult," Viewtifulboi remarked.

"Don't worry. If everyone follows this plan through there is no way it can fail," the Scorpion grinned evilly.

"Oh, There's one more thing. Day, you must go to the gym. I'm sure someone will pass through there tonight. After you've done what you need to do, rejoin the others. If they question your whereabouts, invent something. Say that you've taken a hot shower. Upon no condition must you reveal to them that you're a spy."

DayBunny consented, vanishing into the darkness of the cave, and the others followed.

Later that night, JapansAce stirred. She had fallen asleep after that encounter with the Scorpion King and its minions, and when she woke up it was still dark. She got up and felt along the wall for the light, and found it. Getting dressed, she grabbed her toaster from her bedside table and double checked to make sure that it was with her, and headed out onto the school campus.

It was almost pitch black outside, illuminated only by the lamps glowing with a soft white light. JapansAce looked into the sky and was shocked to see flashes of green lightning in the distance.

"That's Hillville... I wonder what happened there?!" she thought to herself urgently, as she changed directions and walked towards the main building...

JapansAce emerged from the back door of the main building into the gym. She looked slightly surprised that Viewtifulboi wasn't exercising - he usually awoke at 4:30 in the morning - heaven knows why - and would usually come to the Dragon School's dormitories, force his way into Lushen's one and drag Lushen with him whether Lushen was awake or not. The two of them would then practise in the gym, as Lushen tried desperately to beat Viewtifulboi, but Viewtifulboi would win all the time... but it was already nearly 5AM, and Viewtifulboi and Lushen were nowhere to be seen. JapansAce looked up at the commentator and found him snoring in his high booth, then focused her attention back to the task at hand...

The flashes of lightning were becoming slightly audible and she was definitely getting closer. She quickened her pace into a sprint and ran across the length of the gym...

Her hand was on the handle of the back door to the main building of Owl School. She pushed, and the door opened. Before she could react, however, she was stunned by a bolt of white lightning - DayBunny had been waiting for her inside the main building. He glowed an ominous green as an eerie mist floated out of him and into JapansAce, who began to glow the same eerie green...

Pypski escaped from her trap as a bolt of green lightning, blowing up the glass container, the metal rod and a giant rubber cork to smithereens. In the gym, DayBunny and JapansAce watched as a green jet of light streaked across the sky. Pypski materalised in the middle of the gym and approached the pair.

"Excellent," the Scorpion King told DayBunny.

Pypski walked up to JapansAce and grabbed her.

"Come with me. We have something important to finish..."

The next moment, both had vanished in a crackle of green lightning. DayBunny felt the control of the Scorpion King slip away as he regained his own senses. He felt his way through the pitch blackness of the main building and, as he reached the door, heard Cristina question his whereabouts. He pushed open the door, and emerged onto a scene of utter devastation. He saw StrangerD3RK walking away, alone, into the distance towards the back gates. He felt something stir in his mind as he announced his presence.

StrangerD3RK woke up, still slightly dazed by JapansAce's toaster. She looked around and to her shock found herself in a large room of a cave she had never seen before. Lushen, Viewtifulboi, JapansAce, DayBunny and Pypski were sitting on the floor, discussing their next plan. StrangerD3RK tried to move, but couldn't - she had been tied with rope to a stalagmite.

"I see our... guest... has woken up," the Scorpion King said.

Pypski walked over to StrangerD3RK.

"You, my friend, will be the catalyst of my domination."

"Where am I...?! Give me back my Momos...!" StrangerD3RK protested.

The Scorpion King grinned its evil grin through Pypski. It had, in one swipe, gained a vital hostage, foiled its enemies' plans, obtained another minion and eliminated a huge threat. Its first victory was now complete.


	6. Chapter 6

**6. The Clue**

"Day, don't just stand there, come help us clean up this mess!" Magics yelled, holding a giant shard of glass in his hand and waved it dangerously as he gestured towards DayBunny.

DayBunny started. He felt extremely tired and had nearly fallen asleep standing on the spot. At the sound of Magics's voice he jerked awake and began to help with the mess that Pypski had caused a few hours ago. As he picked up a shrapnel of metal rod, a voice stirred inside his head.

"Oh, please... not again-" DayBunny began to think in his head, but was immediately silenced.

"Our hostage keeps asking for her lost bag of Momo fruits! Go find it and hide it in your dormitory!" the voice commanded.

"Can't we give it to her?!" DayBunny thought.

"NO! Hiding it will make her more desperate. It will be more... entertaining... this way..."

"You're pathetic!" DayBunny retorted in his mind. "Stop toying with her!"

Suddenly, an immense pain erupted from within DayBunny's head as the Scorpion King released its rage. The pain made DayBunny gasp, and he fell to the ground, the piece of shrapnel almost impaling his head.

"Whoa, Day! Are you OK?" Kilai quickly rushed towards him and helped him up.

"I'm... fine... I'm..." Suddenly, DayBunny felt himself lose control of his mind again. "...just tired... I was up all night..."

"What were you doing?" asked Birou, slightly concerned. DayBunny had taken his Fifth Grade exam years ago, and their Sixth Grade one was yet to be confirmed, so he certainly couldn't have been studying.

"Oh, nothing... I just got a bit carried away with reading a really good book, that's all... couldn't put it down... kept me awake all night, and then I heard a huge explosion and rushed here as quickly as I could..."

"So that's where you were all night!" exclaimed Tamani, "you just disappeared into thin air, it must've been right after Birou rode off on her cow!"

"Yeah... sorry about that, it was a really good book," DayBunny replied sheepishly.

"Well, go and get some sleep, Day, we'll see you afterwards," Kilai said.

Magics stared after DayBunny... something didn't quite add up... DayBunny staying up all night to read? He hadn't seen DayBunny pick up a single book during his time here, unless he had to, to study for his exams... then there was also how he vanished right after hearing their plan to capture the creature... and that incident in the house in Neo Kansas, where he was sure that Day had been present... but he had asked about that, and nobody was quite sure what they saw... and it was only for a brief moment anyway... and there are other possible people who could have said that particular combination of words, especially since that voice was distorted so badly... and come to think of it, he didn't seem to recall the parties stationed in Neo Kansas being there. He tried to voice this particular thought out loud now, but was reminded of the same fact by Hatake, that none of the people present had spotted the parties on patrol in Neo Kansas. Therefore, Magics was forced to conclude, as far as anyone knew, anyone of the people on patrol in Neo Kansas that day could have been the creature... and after listening to Hatake, Magics had no choice but to agree. After all, he himself had only seen the creature for two minutes maximum in its half-scorpion state... and he did not want believe that DayBunny was behind it. He did not think that DayBunny was capable of such a thing, regardless of the past drama between them...

"Hey, Magics, wake up!" shouted AgSilver, and Magics was brought back down to earth from what he thought was his far-fetched fantasy. He immediately proceeded to help the others clear up the wreckage.

Youki had finally awoke from his ordeal with the Scorpion King, and, like JapansAce, could remember nothing of it, nor the events preceeding it. He walked out of the dormitories, past DayBunny slowly walking back to his, and looked for his daughter.

Youki paused at the entrance to the dormitories. DayBunny seemed a bit... off. He had a blank expression on his face, as if he was in a trance.

"Day?" Youki shouted to DayBunny's back.

DayBunny turned around.

"Oh, good morning, Youki, glad to see you're finally awake, where're you off to?" DayBunny replied.

"I'm just going to take a scenic walk to Hillville," responded Youki. "What about you?"

"Oh, back to my dormitory. I'm feeling a bit tired, I was awake all night..." DayBunny sighed.

Youki had to admit that there seemed to be some truth in this; DayBunny definitely looked really tired. He turned round and continued walking. Behind him, DayBunny suddenly glowed an eerie green, and followed for a few steps, but his tiredness got the better of him. The green glow faded, and he opened the nearest dormitory door, which had fortunately been left unlocked, entered it, closed the door behind him, found the bed, collapsed in a heap onto it and fell asleep, while Youki continued walking...

Youki looked around Sunset Pier with a fondness in his heart. It seemed just yesterday that he was in the second grade and helping out the people here. An Elementalist long ago had cast a spell on the area which had stopped the passage of time, leaving the area in an eternal dusk, and its inhabitants in a state of eternal... not youth, for some of them were far from it, but... life. The setting sun was visible from the base of a remote lighthouse, and Youki liked to go there to look at it over a vivid blue ocean as it hovered over the horizon, illuminating the sky a fiery red. This was the spot where he had met his first and only girlfriend, which soon became the mother to his two daughters - his older daughter, Birou, and her younger sister Hika. He had brought her here many times over the years, both before and after his first daughter had been born, and during both her pregnancies. He remembered how he used to invite her over to his dormitory almost on a daily basis for regular sleepovers. Those times with his wife were, in more ways than one, by far the best times he has ever had in his life. As he sat there now, in Sunset Pier, with a slight pang in his heart, he thought back on those nostalgic times, just the two of them, sitting in this very spot, staring into the sunset. The two of them, making delicious meals together in his dormitory, and passing the time with childish games of old. Those times seemed to last an eternity and he wished dearly that she could be here now, enjoying the sunset with him, sharing in this moment, just like old times. But deep in his heart he knew that, if not impossible, it was very improbable that those times would come again. He knew that these memories were all that he had, and most likely will ever have, of her. He didn't know where she was now, and suppressed a tear as he recalled those fateful events painfully inside his head - she had gone out one night, shortly after Birou's birth, to help a Guild Agent in Mara to collect some mysterious stones from inside a Skalari-infested pyramid, and never came back to her dormitory. Before she went, he had urged her to not go alone, but she felt confident that her powers were enough for the task - she had been a Priest, and therefore had healing as well as offensive skills at her disposal. However, Youki was still worried about her, and the next day, had hurried to her dormitory first thing after waking up in the morning, and urgently knocked on her door, hoping for her to answer. After she failed to do so, he had franticly called all the Guild Agents, Nurses, Pilots and even the Ghost Sweepers to help search for his wife, and had initially waited day and night at his mailbox asking the postman every time he passed if there was any news about her, and the reply was always the same - "None, I'm sorry". And thus, left with no choice, he had to entrust her younger daughter to the care of a close friend from Owl School, and had raised Birou all by himself, thinking about his wife every day, fantasising that one day he will hear a knock on his dormitory, and his wife would be there standing, beaming at him as he opened the door. Every day he listened intently for the slightest knock, but every time he opened it, it would be someone else. He eventually gave up hope and stopped listening entirely. as he needed to focus all his attention on his daughter.

He suppressed a sad chuckle as his mind wandered to the thoughts of Birou. One thing about her was certain, and that was that she had certainly inherited her mother's fondness of cows. Birou had pestered him many times, both during her infancy and later on, as she progressed through the school's ranks, about two things - one was a repeated question about when she was going to get a cow pet, and the second was the subject of her mother. Youki had answered the first request with relative ease, but every time he opened his mouth to reply to the second, he remembered sitting with her in Sunset Pier, remembered those sleepovers he had in his dormitory with her, remembered the two of them, cooking, playing, passing time together and wondering what life was going to be like after they were married and had had lots of children... and these memories of what could have been hurt him so much that he could not force to answer her daughter's question... one day, he vowed, one day he would tell her the truth about her mother, about the great times that her parents had shared... and, as soon as he knew himself, as soon as the postman had something else to say rather than "None, I'm sorry", about her whereabouts right now... and one day, he thought, he will find his lost younger daughter and his wife, and hopefully the four of them would be reunited... one day...

After several hours of fond reminiscence, Youki finally forced himself to get up and, with a heavy heart, wrenched his eyes away from the beautiful sunset. The memories were still clearly etched in his head as he walked away with his back towards the lighthouse, heading towards Greenville. From there he would go into James Isle, and then to Owl School via the back entrance.

DayBunny awoke inside the dormitory some time later, slightly dazed. He walked into the bathroom, left the door slightly open as usual, got into the shower, closed the curtains around him and threw his clothes over the curtains onto the floor. The sound of running water quickly dominated the room, and it wasn't long before his singing joined the noise of running water.

As DayBunny sang, he felt that he had a point. Leaving the door open slightly really did help with the acoustics of his singing...

The group had, by now, finally finished tidying up what remained of the shattered glass jar, and Kalysto had left, saying that she felt slightly tired and hungry, and needed to fetch some pie from inside her dormitory. As she entered, she heard the sound of running water and singing.

"That's strange... who could that be?" wondered Kalysto, a little scared. She quickly located her stash of pies underneath a loose floorboard beside her bed, took some out, and stuffed them into her bag. She then took one of them out and started to munch happily on it. She was so intent on eating her pie that did not notice the sound of singing and running water stop...

DayBunny emerged from the bathroom with one of Kalysto's towels around his waist. Upon catching sight of Kalysto, something stirred inside his head and he began to glow green.

At that moment, Kalysto spotted DayBunny emerging from her shower, viciously looking towards her, wearing one of her towels. She screamed at the top of her voice and instinctively threw her pie at him. The pie hit DayBunny in the face and his head jerked back slightly as Kalysto took off screaming, heading for the dormitory exit. DayBunny chased after her, the towel thankfully still around his waist. As Kalysto dashed outside the dormitory building, she slammed the door shut and locked them from the outside. DayBunny, still running at full pelt, hit the door with a tremendous crash. Unseen by Kalysto, DayBunny's towel slipped onto the floor before he collapses flat onto his face, having knocked himself out.

Outside the dormitory building, Kalysto made a mental note that if she was ever to use that towel again, she would have to wash it at least 9001 times using the strongest washing powder available.

In the cave in Mara, the captured StrangerD3RK watched helplessly as Pypski, Lushen, Viewtifulboi and JapansAce debated together.

"Nice job capturing StrangerD3RK, Pyp!" Viewtifulboi congratulated her.

"Did you guys leave anything behind?" Lushen asked. "You know we have to get rid of all the evidence..."

"I'm pretty certain we left nothing behind. They won't find out anything about her disappearance," JapansAce reassured her.

"NO! WAIT!"

Pypski suddenly remembered with a jolt - StrangerD3RK's giant bag of Momo fruits had fell from her when she had collapsed, and because of StrangerD3RK's sheer weight owing to her armour and, Pypski suspected, the Momo fruits she was so obsessed with eating, herself and JapansAce had no hands free to take the giant bag of Momo fruits, and in their triumph they must have forgotten it behind...

Pypski cursed quietly underneath her breath...

"Viewtifulboi! JapansAce! Go to Hillville right now, and search the back path out of Owl School for a giant bag of Momo fruits! Quickly, before someone else finds it!"

"My Momos...! Give me my Momos...! I must have my precious Momos...!"

Viewtifulboi and JapansAce obliged, and both walked away into the shadows of the cave...

"Don't worry, Derky... you'll have your Momo fruits soon enough..." said Pypski, grinning evilly.

Youki arrived in Hillville and proceeded to walk towards the back gate of Owl School. As he walked towards it in the twilight, he suddenly saw something bulky on the ground.

"This looks like StrangerD3RK's bag of Momo fruits... I wonder what it's doing here?"

Youki picked it up and looked around for StrangerD3RK, but couldn't find her anywhere. Thinking that StrangerD3RK was most likely somewhere in Owl School, he walked on, while two green jets of light flashed across the sky...

Just as Youki disappeared from view of the spot where the bag of Momo fruits laid, Viewtifulboi and JapansAce materialised as two flashes of green lightning struck the ground. They searched the area for the bag of Momo fruits, but Youki was already in Owl School by now.

"It's no use, are you sure she dropped it?" Viewtifulboi asked quizzically. He sounded disbelieving. "Maybe we should get you to a vet..."

The remark made JapansAce so angry that a surge of adrenaline coursed through her veins and she slashed at Viewtifulboi with fury. Viewtifulboi protested and the two quickly started duelling in earnest.

Youki walked into the back gate of Owl School, painfully carrying Overlord Momo's huge bag of Momo fruits. He spotted a group of people beneath a cherry blossom tree, but they seemed to have fallen asleep where they stood. He quickly shot a barrage of bullets into the crowd, which promptly woke them up. Thankfully, Viewtifulboi and JapansAce were too busy duelling to hear Youki's gunshots.

"DADDY!" screamed Birou, as she ran towards him and hugged him. All of Youki's treasured memories which he had relived in Sunset Pier earlier that day suddenly came back to him, and he hugged his daughter back with tears in his eyes.

"Hey, Youki, what gives?!" asked Magics abruptly, after being woken up by Youki's gunshots. He touched the places where the bullets had grazed him and winced, but then noticed the giant bag. "Hey, wait a second... isn't that Derky's Momo bag?!"

The last statement had roused everyone. Youki, still hugging his daughter, deposited the bag of Momo fruits on the ground beside Magics.

"I thought Derky went for a walk..." Kari gasped.

"Yeah, she did... alone..." Bui said.

"Something must have happened to her! She never leaves her Momo bag behind!" Kilai observed - and it was perfectly true. StrangerD3RK wasn't called Overlord Momo for nothing.

"The creature must have gotten her!" Sahara panicked.

"What creature?" Youki asked, puzzled.

Birou suddenly remembered that her father has no recollection of the previous few days. She took her father aside and, as she filled him in, the others tried to come up with a plan of finding StrangerD3RK's whereabouts, and rescuing her.

Pypski was in a rage. Viewtifulboi and JapansAce had returned empty-handed. She glared furiously at the two of them, as StrangerD3RK kept asking over and over again for her big bag of Momo fruits from her stalagmite.

"Where is it?!" enquired the Scorpion King furiously.

"We don't know! It wasn't there! If it was there before, someone must have taken it!" JapansAce protested, while Viewtifulboi nodded his agreement.

Pypski considered this... someone had discovered the bag of Momo fruits... that means that they were likely to launch a search party soon... maybe it was better that they hadn't recovered StrangerD3RK's bag after all...


	7. Chapter 7

**7****．****The Capture**

A click came from the door to the Dragon dormitories. DayBunny was awoken by the sound, but barely had time to move from his awkward position before the door was forced open. He felt an excruciating pain as he became trapped between the door and the wall. As his eyes filled with tears, he heard someone walk in.

Kalysto entered the Dragon dormitories, and walked past DayBunny trapped awkwardly behind the door without noticing him. She went back into her dormitory and locked the door, and busied herself with the oven.

DayBunny winced as he laid in that awkward position, in severe pain, doubting his ability to have children in the future, as a flash of green lighting struck outside the dormitories, and Pypski materialised. She entered the dormitories purposefully, and noticed a towel on the ground and a pair of legs sticking out behind the door. She peeked around the door and immediately withdrew her gaze, on the verge of vomiting. So THIS was where DayBunny went off to?! Goofing around and getting himself trapped between a door and a wall instead of with her enemies, spying on her enemies' plan?! For all she knew, he must've been lying here all day after herself and JapansAce had captured StrangerD3RK, and the Scorpion King had throught he was spying! Its enemies could have come up with a new plan in that time, and for all the Scorpion King knew, it had no knowledge about the new plan whatsoever! In a fit of blind rage the Scorpion King struck DayBunny with a bolt of lightning from Pypski's hand in the place where it would agonise him the most, adding insult to DayBunny's injury. She then grabbed the towel lying on the ground and threw it over DayBunny, while DayBunny laid paralysed, unable to move. DayBunny watched as, with another swift movement, Pypski had struck all the handles to the dormitory doors she can see one by one. Each door flew open with a loud bang, and she began inspecting for any people inside, while a smell of fresh fish pie drifted out from the open door of Kalysto's dormitory...

As Pypski inspected all the dormitories, DayBunny cursed underneath his breath - his clothes were still inside Kalysto's bathroom, and before he could do anything he must retrieve them, but he could not - he was still trapped. The chances of him having children now looked remote after the Scorpion King had struck him with the lightning bolt, and he suspected that he, the door and the wall had now been fused together by the energy of the blast. He cursed again as Pypski, inside the dormitory she was currently searching, smelt the unmistakable smell of fish pie, following it into Kalysto's room...

Kalysto felt a draught from the doorway and suddenly became aware that the door was open. She saw a green silhouette approach from outside, and without a second thought removed a giant stack of mini fish pies on a baking tray out of her oven. Just as Pypski noticed her, she poured the fish pies into her bag, quickly opened her window and jumped out of it. The next moment, a jet of green lightning struck her windowsill, leaving a small crater.

Pypski walked into Kalysto's dormitory and located the bathroom. She found DayBunny's clothes and armour lying in a heap next to the bathtub. With another fit of rage she picked them up with a disgusted look on her face, went outside and threw them over to DayBunny, still incapacitated by the door and the wall and paralysed from the lightning bolt. All he could do is watch on helplessly as his clothes and gear fell in a heap on top of him. His gun hit him cleanly on the forehead and he passed out once again. The Scorpion King wondered why it put up with things like this from DayBunny, but he was a good spy when he wanted to be, and the spirit remembered vividly that day seven years ago - it was DayBunny's curiosity which had freed him in the first place. With a sigh of exasperation, Pypski walked to the door of the dormitory, and to DayBunny's shock - for he was still literally stuck to the door and the wall from Pypski's lightning bolt, she grabbed the door to which DayBunny was stuck... and slammed it shut with such force that it released DayBunny completely from his position...

A loud scream from DayBunny reverberated in the dormitories.

Kalysto sprinted as fast as she could across the gym, the half-scorpion Pypski now hot on her tail. Suddenly, Kilai appeared out of nowhere, riding on her hippo. Kalysto quickly jumps on behind Kilai, and the two flee from the approaching creature. into the main building of Owl School. Pypski immediately tried to strike them with bolts of lightning shot out of her own hand, and despite a few narrow misses, Kilai managed to dodge them all, as she ran inside the dark main building with Kaly, the pair riding on Kilai's hippo.

Pypski was infuriated - her new plan looked as if it was going to fail. In a fit of rage, she transformed into a green lightning bolt and disappeared from the gym...

As Kilai and Kalysto emerged from the main building into Owl School, Kilai's hippo was suddenly struck by a bolt of green lightning, throwing both of them off, while the hippo ran away, frightened. Pypski materialised in her half-scorpion form and the Scorpion King proceeded to attack Kilai and Kalysto...

Suddenly, two giant golden beams illuminated the night sky and blinded the Scorpion King, and it was forced to slow down. It whrled around in slow motion and saw Birou and Youki both shooting a giant bullet barrage at itself. In a flash it changed targets and aimed a tail strike at Youki, who dodged it easily. MaximusArk quickly dashed towards it and slashed at it furiously with his claws, drawing the creature's attention away from the Dual Gunners. Youki and Birou scattered as MaximusArk drew the creature towards the cherry blossom tree near the Shopkeeper's stall - the Shopkeeper having turned in for the night.

As soon as MaximusArk had lured the half-scorpion beneath the tree, Birou had fired another golden beam at it. At the same time, Youki had spotted a weak spot in the creature's armour and immediately fired two quick bullets from each gun into it. Birou then leapt backwards, tossing out grenades towards the creature as she went, which exploded in a brilliant flash of white light. The creature was immediately stunned by a combination of all three skills. MaximusArk quickly sprinted away from the creature, as Magics, Sahara, and Runaria quickly stepped out from behind several bushes, and were quickly joined by Kalysto. The four Elementalists quickly muttered the same incantation, surrounding the creature in a quadruple forcefield. Fierce green lightning crackled inside the glowing blue orb as the creature tried desperately to escape, but it was useless - try as it might it could not pass through the forcefield. Every time it would shatter one layer, another layer was reinforced on top by one of the Elementalists, until finally Noemig would suddenly paralyse the creature with a jet of lightning from her gun, rendering it helpless to move. Kalysto placed her bulging bag of mini fish pies onto the floor and it was quickly emptied as everyone made a dash for them.

And thus, the Scorpion King had been captured.

====================**A few hours ago...**====================

"Hey, wait a second... isn't that Derky's Momo bag?!" Magics winced - Youki's bullets had grazed him in lots of different places.

The last statement had roused everyone. Youki, still hugging his daughter, deposited the bag of Momo fruits on the ground beside Magics.

"I thought Derky went for a walk..." Kari gasped.

"Yeah, she did... alone..." Bui said.

"Something must have happened to her! She never leaves her Momo bag behind!" Kilai observed - and it was perfectly true. StrangerD3RK wasn't called Overlord Momo for nothing.

"The creature must have gotten her!" Sahara panicked.

"What creature?" Youki asked, puzzled.

As Birou took her father aside to fill him in, the others quickly formulated a plan to save StrangerD3RK.

"We don't even know where the creature's taken her, so even if we do succeed it'll be very hard..." Yuumei observed.

"Let's focus on one step at a time," Magics told them. "We have to capture Pypski first, then force her to reveal where she's taken Derky. I have the perfect plan..."

"There might be something in here which can help us," Sahara said, opening StrangerD3RK's bag. After browsing through the top layer of Momo fruits, she thrust her hand in, and grabbed one from deeper within the bag...

"One Momo fruit surely can't hurt..." Sahara thought, as she took a bite, but her mouth closed on something metallic and hard. She pulled whatever it was from inside the Momo fruit, and saw that it was some sort of small, weird ring... she spat it out into her hand.

"Weird, what's this?" Sahara thought, examining it closely...

As soon as Sahara had removed the weird ring-like thing from the Momo fruit, it had started to tick. Sahara heard it very faintly, and held it up to her ears to verify that it was indeed coming from the Momo fruit. Magics, who by now had finished telling everyone his plan, looked around and looked slightly worried at seeing Sahara listening to a Momo fruit - was she going mad?! What could a Momo fruit possibly say to her?!

Magics then saw what Sahara held in her other hand... it looked like a tiny safety pin...

And he put two and two together...

He dashed forward and quickly grabbed the Momo fruit from Sahara, and without a second's hesitation threw it far away into the Meep enclosure. As it landed, the ticking stopped, and the next second the whole Momo fruit had blown up in a vast explosion.

"Whoa... thanks a lot, Magics!" Sahara told Magics, shocked by what she had nearly done.

"No problem," Magics said. "Be careful next time..."

Magics grinned to himself. It was just like StrangerD3RK to hide a grenade inside her Momo fruits, possibly as a harsh deterrant to anyone who tried to eat them. He can just about imagine it - StrangerD3RK taking out a grenade-inhabited Momo fruit and eating it, carefully avoiding the safety pin. Once she had finished, she would insert the grenade into a fresh Momo fruit. The grenades she used were so small, that it didn't need a big hole to insert them into the Momo fruit at all... chuckling slightly at the deviousness of StrangerD3RK, he turned back to the bag, and reached all the way to the bottom.

Magics gasped in pain and quickly withdrew his hand to find one of his fingers bleeding - he had cut himself on something sharp inside StrangerD3RK's bag. More cautious this time, he reached in and took out the offending object.

It was a jet-black whip, lined with double-edged backwards-facing, vicious-looking barbs. It was on one of these sharpened barbed edges that Magics had accidentally slashed his finger. As Kilai rushed over and healed the cut, Magics stared in amazement... StrangerD3RK had talked about the whip many times before, but this was the first time he had ever seen it. He was even doubtful of its existence until today... Magics grinned, these will be very useful in the second phase of his plan. He was sure StrangerD3RK wouldn't

"Max, Kaly, Kilai, Birou, Youki... you know what to do."

Noemig and Runaria were guarding the trapped Pypski, while the others were searching for possible places where StrangerD3RK could be. Runaria was adding more forcefield layers as quickly as Pypski broke through them, aided by Noemig, who stunned and froze Pypski at regular intervals. Inside Pypski's mind, the Scorpion King was working hard, formulating a plan to escape...

Inside the cave in Mara, Lushen and JapansAce felt something stir in the back of their heads. They glowed an eerie green as the Scorpion King controlled them, and they walked into the darkness of the cave. StrangerD3RK was fast asleep, still tied to the stalagmite.

"Well... we've finally caught her," Noemig said, freezing Pypski with four blasts of ice from her gun.

"Yeah, let's hope nothing else happens now," Runaria said as she encased the creature in another forcefield.

Suddenly, two green silhouettes appeared behind Noemig and Runaria. Both of them suddenly felt rapid, powerful claw strikes as the two ninjas attacked them. The two collapsed, dazed, as a hand clapped on each of their mouths, and a green mist suddenly emerged from JapansAce and Lushen, while Pypski broke free of her forcefield...

The five of them then vanished into the night with a brilliant flash of green, as if nothing had ever happened...

Scorpion King, two; everyone else, zero...

...and all this time, DayBunny had laid where Pypski had left him, still pained from his recent experiences...


	8. Chapter 8

**8****．****Ambush**

Kilai's hippo had been found bathing itself in the lake in Hillville. It had calmed down and as Kilai approached, gave no resistance as she climbed on it. She hugged her hippo, happy that it had been found, and quickly rejoined the rest of the group, as they searched for possible places which StrangerD3RK could be, and found them near the entrance to James Isle...

"We'll cover more ground if we split up," Magics said. "There shouldn't be any problems, since we've already captured the creature, whatever it is."

"We should probably search in pairs, it's safer that way," Sahara said.

"Right. Let's split up in pairs," agreed Kilai. She still felt a bit insecure, almost as if someone was watching them...

Magics divided everyone into teams of two: Birou and Sahara, xxLilBunny and Cristina, Bui and Kilai, Nightzs and Youki, Chinami and KnightofHan, Kalysto and Spycer, Gemini and SnowOwl, Natsuki and Tamani, Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii was paired with Domennico, and he himself paired with Yuumei.

"All right. Each party takes charge of searching through one area. Birou and Sahara, you guys go to James Isle. Bui and Kilai, Ghost Town, Nightzs and Youki can have Sunset Pier, Chinami and Han, you two can search Neo Kansas. Bunny and Cristina, the two of you keep on searching here. Kalysto and Spycer can take Fortville, Gemini and SnowOwl, head to the gym and look for secret passages, Uii and Dom, you two take Mara. Natsu and Tamani, you two help Gem and Snow, and Yuumei and I will search the Forest of Silence."

The words echoed inside Youki's mind... "Nightzs and Youki can have Sunset Pier"... he couldn't believe it... he couldn't stand reliving through those memories again as he searched the caves bathed in the glow of an eternal sunset...

"I'm sorry, Magics... can you put us somewhere else?" requested Youki, "Sunset Pier has too many... painful memories..."

Magics looked surprised for a moment, and gave a moment's of consideration.

"All right, Youki and Nightzs can have Neo Kansas. Han and Chinami, you two take Sunset Pier."

Birou and Sahara immediately began searching James Isle while xxLilBunny and Cristina walked towards the direction of the Haunted House. The other eight parties ran towards Owl School, and four of them walked into the main building, while the others quickly hurried onto the plane...

The next few minutes were uneventful, nobody had seen anything useful, nor had anyone found StrangerD3RK, until...

A streak of green lightning flashed over Kilai and Bui's heads as the two of them wandered around Ghost Town searching all the deserted houses for StrangerD3RK or a hint to her whereabouts. Pypski materialised behind them. With one quick swipe of her tail and her giant hammer, Bui was dazed on the ground. Almost immediately, before Kilai could heal Bui, Pypski directed her attention on Kilai, and, with several swift strikes, knocked her staff out of her hand, cutting her spell short.

Pypski longed to possess the two of them - they would make excellent additions to her minions - and was on the verge of doing so, but she couldn't. There must be something for the others to find... she only wanted to show to them that she had been broken free... the true fun would start later... she vanished in a bolt of lightning, and Kilai quickly picked up her staff, awoke Bui and rode on her hippo to find the others...

...all the Scorpion King had to do is lead them to its lair... and then... it begins...

...before it did so, it just needed to do one more thing...

DayBunny had finally recovered from his painful memories given to him by Pypski earlier that night. He got up from the floor and put on his clothes and armour. He strapped the gun around the back as a voice stirred inside his head...

Back in the hideout of the Scorpion King, Lushen, JapansAce, Viewtifulboi, Noemig and Runaria all felt the Scorpion King's control wash over them.

"Leave the cave. They will discover it soon, and no doubt will launch an attack. Hide nearby, and wait for my signal."

The six minions obliged, and StrangerD3RK saw them walk away from her stalagmite, their green glow fading into the darkness of the cave...

xxLilBunny and Cristina wandered back to the main campus. Being bored out of their minds, the two started to kill Meeps for fun. Suddenly, a flash of green lightning whizzed above them overhead...

"Oh... that's not good," xxLilBunny remarked, stabbing a Meep as the bolt of lightning vanished into the horizon.

Cristina also looked concerned, and the two of them quickly ran to the cherry blossom tree where Cristina had regularly slept underneath for so long, expecting to find Runaria and Noemig still torturing the captured Pypski, who was being controlled by the Scorpion King...

But the three of them were nowhere to be found...

"Has anyone seen Pypski?" xxLilBunny's voice rang through Kasmari as she held a megaphone to her mouth to broadcast the message.

In the Forest of Silence the words hit Magics like a knife as he battled with Azif, the King of Beasts. Azif struck Magics in the stomach as Magics eyes widened in shock at xxLilBunny's message. He was immediately winded by the blow, and Yuumei quickly tossed a small, round, red seed at the beast, which exploded on contact, burning it alive in a matter of seconds.

"Magics, are you okay?" Yuumei had heard the message too, and as she healed Magics, she wondered what Pypski could have done to overcome Noemig and Runaria...

"We need to get back to Hillville. Fast," said Magics, immediately running for the plane.

"Hey...! Wait for me!" Yuumei cried, startled by Magics's sudden movement, and quickly ran to catch up.

Magics and Yuumei were the eighth to arrive in Hillville, followed closely by Youki and Nightzs, and Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii and Domennico joined them not long afterwards. Everyone seemed to be puzzled about one thing, and that was the whereabouts of Pypski, and what she had done to Noemig and Runaria...

"She was just here an hour ago... Runaria and Noemig had been keeping her under control, there was no way she could have escaped!"

"Do you think some of us are helping her?"

"What are you suggesting? One of us is a spy?"

"It's a possibility..."

"Even if that's the case, which is highly unlikely, then who do you think it can be?"

"I... don't know..."

Magics overheard these words and thought long and hard... perhaps they had underestimated her... after watching what she had done to their previous trap, maybe they should have left more people guarding her...

"What do we do now?" asked SnowOwl hesitantly.

"I'm... not sure..." Magics sat down, at a loss for words.

"More and more of us are disappearing, and we don't even know what's happening to them..." said Tamani, as she sat down near Magics.

Magics sighed. He had been aware of this... yet there was little he could do except comfort Tamani and to reassure her that they will eventually find the solution...

The Scorpion King grinned. Everything had been set into place. All it had to do now was lure them into its trap... in a flash of green lightning, it was outside the Owl School's back gate. it stared at the group underneath the cherry blossom tree evilly, its hands crackled with green lightning, and it proceeded to attack...

Everyone screamed as a flash of lightning narrowly missed Magics, who quickly stood up and looked around for the source...

"Over there!" Spycer pointed it out - a green silhouette in the distance, growing ever larger, the shape of an oddly deformed human... or was it scorpion...?

With a jolt, Magics realised it was Pypski. He saw the hands of the silhouette flash green again for the briefest moments before another bolt of lightning struck the very three they were standing beneath, and it was set alight. As everyone ran around panicking, Magics saw the silhouette of the half-scorpion run away into the night.

"Quick! After it!" Magics shouted. "We can't let it get away again!"

"Bui, grab Derky's bag from your dormitory and wake up everyone you can find!"

The Scorpion King was out of range of the Elementalists, who tried in vain to surround it with another forcefield. As the group chased it, every so often the spirit fired a bolt of lightning behind it, which scattered everyone for around a minute or so, before the giant mob reassembled and chased after it again. And thus it was that the Scorpion King lured them through James Isle, Greenville, Ghost Town, the Forest of Silence, Neo Kansas and eventually to Mara.

"How long have we been chasing it?!" panted Kilai.

"It must be nearly dawn at school now..." gasped Magics, as he dodged another lightning bolt.

"Derky's been gone for almost a whole day now... I hope Pypski hasn't done anything to her..." gasped Tamani as she too panted heavily from the running and dodging Pypski made her do.

The group had now chased Pypski to three giant pyramids, each of which glowed an eerie orange. As the group rounded the corner of a particularly desolate-looking one, they saw Pypski run into it from behind.

"Wait!" Magics warned. "This seems like a trap..."

"Don't worry, Magics, Pypski is outnumbered, there's no way we can lose!" KnightofHan said confidently.

"We shouldn't underestimate her," Magics told him. "She overcame Noemig and Runaria without breaking a sweat. I think that if she wanted to kill us, she would have done it already, therefore, the fact that she didn't must mean that she wanted us to come..."

"But she's still outnumbered," reasoned KnightofHan. "Bui still hasn't arrived with everyone he managed to round up, and we've already got nineteen!"

Magics couldn't argue with this. It was indeed true that they outnumbered Pypski by at least twenty to one. The chances of her beating them all were very slim...

At that moment, Bui rushed towards the group, a large bag in his hand. Behind him followed AgSilver, BlissBunny, Axlrose, Focusman, Sturm, MaximusArk, PillBox, Ciggss, Taiyaki, Kari and FakeChow.

"Are we ready now, Magics?" KnightofHan said, with a sly grin.

Magics surrendered. It did seem that they were in with a good chance of overcoming Pypski. He reluctantly agreed, and the swarm of people followed Pypski inside...

DayBunny, Lushen, Viewtifulboi, JapansAce, Noemig and Runaria emerged from behind a pyramid illuminated by a flying saucer. The six of them felt a voice inside their head, and followed swarm of people inside...

Magics emerged into a strange cave that he had never seen before. He catches a glimpse of Pypski running off into the distance...

"Follow her!" Magics yelled, as the giant mob of people rushed after Pypski, who shot another bolt of lightning from her hand...

The Scorpion King led them into the huge cavern where it and its minions discussed their plans. Upon entering, everyone immediately saw StrangerD3RK tied to a stalagmite.

"Derky!" Kilai shouted as she started to rush over, but before she had taken a few steps, the Scorpion King had struck her with a bolt of lightning, knocking her back. As Cristina healed her, Magics glared furiously towards the creature.

"What have you done to Derky?!"

The Scorpion King did not reply, but simply waited.

"OH MY GOD!" a voice suddenly yelled.

Everyone turned around to face the source of the voice - but soon their gaze was distracted by something else. Six green glowing outlines suddenly emerged out of the darkness from which they had ran into the main chamber.

"What the..." said Magics, taken by surprise, as Viewtifulboi, JapansAce, Lushen, Noemig, Runaria and DayBunny walked into the room.

"Say hello to my minions..." the Scorpion King grinned evilly, and with a flash of lightning immediately proceeded to attack, as its six minions did the same...

StrangerD3RK could only watch, horrified, from her stalagmite, as her friends were trapped by the Scorpion King on one side, using Pypski's body as a host, and its six possessed minions on the other. Everything seemed hopeless...

...and then she noticed a familiar-looking bag in Bui's hand, and grinned to herself...

...maybe this won't go as badly as she had initially thought, after all...


	9. Chapter 9

**9****．****Deceitful Victory**

The Scorpion King transformed into the bolt of lightning and immediately attacked without mercy. At the same time, its six minions also began shooting bullets and spells into the crowd.

DayBunny was immediately attacked by everyone in his nearby vicinity, and in less than five seconds had collapsed. Giant golden beams illuminated the dark caverns as the Dual Gunners started to fire bullet after bullet into Pypski's minions. Pypski flew around and tried to strike as many people as possible...

The elementalists and priests quickly cast protective shields around themselves as a blazing trail of green whizzed around the cavern, but the Strikers had managed to activate a device which increased the ability to evade attacks of everyone in their immediate vicinity, causing most of Pypski's strikes missed their targets.

The Scorpion King looked around furiously and saw Magics in a corner, relatively far from the others, encased in a blue forcefield. It didn't look as if the agility device had taken effect on him... the get of green lightning struck Magics's shield with a loud explosion, draining most of his energy and shattering his forcefield. Magics quickly darted into the mass of people for safety, and the Scorpion King's fury explodes in a violent shockwave as it loses its next victim...

Everyone was knocked away from the main chamber as the shockwave was released from the Scorpion King. DayBunny was blasted into a dark area of the cave next to a wall. As everyone picked themselves up, the battle resumed, but the Scorpion King's other five minions were still outnumbered... and at last Pypski saw the only way for them to secure an upper hand...

She grabbed StrangerD3RK by the neck and held her in a tight grip.

"Stop or I kill her!" the Scorpion King threatened in its distorted voice.

Bui had bent down to retrieve something inside StrangerD3RK's bag. At the sound of Pypski's ultimatum, he stood up promptly, one hand closed over the jet black whip. The Scorpion King noticed this, and without a moment's hesitation a bolt of lightning flew out of its hand. Bui was knocked out once again as the whip flew from his hands. The Scorpion King deftly caught it, and presses a sharpened edge of one of the barbs to StrangerD3RK's neck.

"Stop or I kill her!" the Scorpion King repeated its ultimatum, as everyone else gasped in shock - DayBunny had emerged from the shadows, no longer fainted, but his strength fully restored, aiming his gun towards the mob of people. He joined the other six, and all seven began to glow an eerie green as they trapped everyone in a circle, Pypski still holding StrangerD3RK at the mercy of her own whip, as Viewtifulboi, Noemig and Runaria quickly blinded CristinaSollo, Kilai, and BlissBunny, disabling their skills, preventing them from healing...

"Well, since the secret is out, I might as well tell you," the Scorpion King carried on speaking. "If you haven't figured it out already, I'm the one capturing your people and turning them into my minions. Eventually you will all fall one by one. It is useless to resist. I have had an inside spy with me this whole time. It was that spy which told me about your pathetic first attempt to capture me. It was that spy which released me from my prison in the first place, over seven years ago..."

Everyone in the mob looked around at the minions. Their eyes moved, as if in unison, from Pypski, JapansAce, Lushen, Viewtifulboi, Noemig, Runaria, and DayBunny. Any one of them could be the spy... not to mention it could be any one

"Stop it, don't believe it, whatever it is is just trying to make us paranoid of each other. We have to trust each other. If we fight between ourselves, then it'll make it easier for her to kill us all!" Kilai yelled suddenly.

"I agree, we can't afford to fight between ourselves, not right now," Magics nodded, still staring at Pypski, holding the whip to StrangerD3RK's neck. He watched as she pressed the edge of the barb slightly, and can see a few red droplets beginning to appear...

"I can either do this slowly, or quickly. It's up to you..." the Scorpion King chuckled as it made Pypski press the barb even harder, while Pypski tried to protest in vain.

"I've heard enough!" KnightofHan yelled. "Get out of Pypski right now, whatever you are!"

With that, KnightofHan launched himself at Pypski, striking him repeatedly with the hammer, but was stunned by Noemig and frozen by DayBunny. Runaria quickly reminded herself of an incantation to revitalise her magical energy, and fired four rapid beams of golden light towards KnightofHan, silencing his skills, and before the latter knew what had happened, he had collapsed along with Bui.

"I have told you. It is useless. Whether you are united or not we will overpower you. Give it up now, and join us," the Scorpion King tempted its enemies. "We have cakes..."

"No! We'll never do it!" Kalysto shouted.

"...and cookies..."

"Never!"

"...and pie."

Kalysto faltered, her eyes lit up hungrily, and she walked forwards towards Pypski...

Suddenly, an arm blocked Kalysto's advance. Kalysto looked surprised and turned around. Magics had grabbed onto Kalysto. As she broke her gaze with Pypski, so did she snap out of her trance, and quickly rejoined the group.

Taiyaki was the next to react. Dashing forwards, she aimed straight for Pypski, and performed a somersault, kicking Pypski in the process, wounding her. Pypski's minions quickly knocked her unconscious too, but not before Taiyaki's leg had hooked StrangerD3RK's whip mid-somersault, which flew away from Pypski and into the crowd as the somersault was completed.

StrangerD3RK took her chance. She elbowed the half-scorpion Pypski in the stomach, winding her, as Gemini and Spycer dashed to Lushen and Runaria - the minions closest to Pypski. Birou picked up StrangerD3RK's whip and threw it to her, as Youki tossed her her big bag of Momos and Momonades at the same time. StrangerD3RK caught the bag around her neck, and, caught her whip in her left hand. She then steadied her gun with her right hand and proceeded to attack Pypski. As she slashed and shot at Pypski, she suddenly heard a scream behind her - DayBunny had trapped Kilai in a corner and was about to finish her off - everyone else being occupied with the other five minions. StrangerD3RK ran through the crowd towards DayBunny, and finally lashed out her whip towards him. It struck firmly between his legs. DayBunny screamed in agony as he was slashed by the whip's deadly barbs, and immediately retreated back into the shadows, his green glow fading.

"Let's get out of here, I have an plan!" StrangerD3RK shouted, as Pypski rushed for her again. Everyone backed away from the cave, still battling the other five minions. StrangerD3RK aimed her gun into the crowd of minions and froze three of them. Magics and Sahara immediately froze the other two. Everyone quickly rushed out of the cave and into Mara's eternal night, StrangerD3RK bringing up the rear. As she ran, she took out all of the normal Momo fruits from her bag, and stuffed them into her pockets. She pushed her gun back onto her back, and dangled her whip from the trigger...

Behind her, the Scorpion King and its five minions had broken free of the ice, and now walked towards her with an evil green glow surrounding their silhouettes. StrangerD3RK stopped and looked behind her, and could see the silhouettes grow bigger as they approached her. As she emptied her bag of Momonades at her feet, she saw four other silhouettes join the other six - those of KnightofHan, Bui, Taiyaki and DayBunny. Without a second thought, she took one of the Momonades, and took a bite. After chewing for a few seconds she spat what looked like a small ring onto the ground... she chanced a glimpse at the ten silhouettes and, to her horror, realised that she could make out their features pretty distinctly now...

Without another second's hesitation, StrangerD3RK dropped her Momonade into the middle of the pile of Momonades, and ran for the exit as fast as she could. She knew she only had seconds to escape...

A big explosion resonated from behind her, catching StrangerD3RK on the very edge of the blast as she jumped, while falling debris and a mist of dust hid the passage she had just ran along from view. She was pushed out of Itnin's tomb by the force of the explosion. Gunshots were heard from StrangerD3RK's gun as her whip was thrown from it by the force of the explosion, depressing the trigger multiple times with its barbs as it went. StrangerD3RK fell hard onto the sand, and was propelled forward slightly by the recoil of the shooting gun as her whip flew from behind her into the crowd, uncoiling and spinning dangerously as it went. The crowd ducked in the style of a Mexican wave to avoid it, and its barbs caused it to lodge itself in the wall of the tomb of Arfa in a perfectly straight horizontal line.

StrangerD3RK flipped herself over in the sand and stared at the top of the pyramid, which had begun to tremble...

"Run!" Magics shouted. Everyone quickly escaped from the scene and headed for the airplane. StrangerD3RK picked herself up quickly, moments before a large stone landed exactly where she had laid. She retrieved her whip from Arfa's wall, before hurrying to join the others. The tunnel leading to the secret cave was now almost clogged of debris, and another large stone fell from the apex of the pyramid, to completely block the back passage's entrance.

Moments before the entrance was blocked, unseen to everyone, ten jets of green lightning raced out from underneath the falling boulder...

The group had arrived at Hillville, after severely annoying the Pilot, who insisted that the plane was too heavy for all of them. It was daytime now, and everyone was immensely tired. Most of them retreated to their dormitories immediately, while Cristina and a few select others fell asleep under the cherry blossom tree.

Akbar stood near the entrance of a mysterious cave near the Knight Shelter. His ancestors had talked about this cave for as long as he can remember and, after the toils of helping everyone in Kasmari, he was finally here. He admired the scene, taking in the sights...

Suddenly, a green silhouette appeared behind him. A hand clasped on his mouth and he saw the edge of a black claw, glowing a bright yellow. He was blinded by this glow, and the next moment his eyes widened in shock for the briefest time, and then he knew no more... as whatever it was behind him slit his throat with a swipe of a claw...

Before Akbar fell to the ground, he saw several bolts of green lightning flash by as they entered the cave - the entrance to the Red Desert Ruins...


	10. Chapter 10

**10****．****The Ritual**

Pypski and her minions entered the Red Desert Ruins and stared around. It looked as if an ancient civilisation had lived here long ago, but had now deserted it... as Pypski looked closer, splashes of crimson peppered the cave wall... she recoiled from it slightly, but nevertheless carried on. Not long afterwards, they came across some Skalari they had never encountered before. This intrigued the Scorpion King, which thought that they would make great guardians for its new lair.

KnightofHan and Viewtifulboi were fascinated by these new Skalari, and immediately proceeded to attack one.

"No!" the Scorpion King yelled, infuriated - what were they doing, killing off the guardians?! "Leave them! They can guard this cave in case anything comes looking for us!"

"Don't worry," Viewtifulboi said casually, "more of them materialise every five minutes or so, they breed nearly as fast as Bunnies do."

"Please don't mention the word 'breed' in front of me ever again..." DayBunny groaned. Although being possessed by the Scorpion King had meant that his injuries had healed and he felt that he could have children again, the word still brought back painful memories.

The ten of them proceeded through the cave. The mobs were strong, but not strong enough to bypass the Scorpion King's power. The scratches which they inflicted healed over almost immediately after they were formed.

As they neared the end of the cave, they saw a stange creature, larger than the others. The Scorpion King knew that this must be the cave's previous owner, and grinned. Excellent, just another obstacle for them to fight through...

The Scorpion King and its minions walked behind the previous owner of the cave, where it was safe from the Skalari's annoying attacks. It looked around at its followers and counted them... nine... everything was almost ready... now it just needs a sacrifice.

"We should use Birou's cow... I've never liked it," one of the Scorpion King's minions said.

"That will not be necessary... we already have who we need," the Scorpion King replied. "Go get that person you killed, Jace, and clean up any evidence."

JapansAce walked back out of the cave through the mass of mobs, which barely tickled her as she went. Within a few minutes, she deposited Akbar beside Pypski.

"Did you get rid of the evidence?" Pypski asked.

"Yes, they won't know that anything ever happened there," JapansAce chuckled.

"Excellent," thought the Scorpion King, everything is prepared.

"The ritual... can begin."

As day broke over Hillville, Magics heaved a sigh. They had finally trapped the Scorpion King, at least, if they were not in smithereens from StrangerD3RK's huge Momonade explosion. Even though they had also suffered losses, at least the Scorpion King will not terrorise anyone any more, or so he thought.

"How many Momo fruits do you have left, Derky?" Kilai asked, looking at StrangerD3RK's pockets, which seemed to be full of Momo fruits, as Magics also approached them.

"I managed to save quite an few...!" StrangerD3RK said happily, emptying her pockets, from which fell a small mountain of Momo fruits.

"Hand 'em over, Kaly'll make some Momo pies for all of us tonight," said Magics with a grin.

"Wait, what?!" Kalysto said, astonished.

After much persuation, Kalysto had no choice but to hurry to her dormitory with StrangerD3RK's rescued Momo fruits and turn them into pies.

Kalysto returned with the Momo pies half an hour later, and as she approached the cherry blossom tree she saw everyone sitting on the ground in a circle. She deposited the pies into the middle, keeping five for herself, which she began to take a bite out of.

"These pies smell really good," said Kilai, reaching to grab one.

"Agreed," Magics said through a mouthful of pie, whlle beside him, PillBox tried to stuff a whole one into his mouth, but failed miserably with hilarious consequences.

Kalysto blushed, and mumbled something inaudible. She quickly returned to her small stack of pies.

After a while, Magics suggested that everyone head off to their dormitories, having stayed awake throughout the entire night. As everyone walked off into the distance, he sighed. Everything seemed to be back into the way it was, and that was the way he liked it.

Back in the Red Desert Ruins, the Scorpion King gathered its nine minions around it in a circle as it stood in the centre with Akbar. Suddenly, Pypski was blasted backwards into the others as the spirit left her body, and fused itself with Akbar's. Immediately as the spirit fused, a brilliant jet of green emerged from between the eyes of each of the nine minions surrounding it to Akbar's head. As the transfusion was complete, the Scorpion King emerged, fully corporeal, as Akbar's body disintegrates into nothingness...

All its efforts had been leading up to this moment... and finally, they have been fruitful...

Pypski had been released from the Scorpion King's grasp during the ritual, and now the Scorpion King stared at her. A green mist seemed to emanate from it, which passed into Pypski, who immediately became another one of the Scorpion King's minions...

It had forgoten the immense power it had once held all those times ago... and as it quietly chuckled to itself, it saw, in its mind's eye, the decimation of its enemies, begging it for mercy, and how it denied them that mercy, as revenge for what their ancestors had done all those years ago...


	11. Chapter 11

**11. Surprise Attack**

The Scorpion King stared around at its reluctant minions, and chuckled. These were some of the best people it can find, but nevertheless, it thought, it can do better. Before its ressurrection, it had to operate by stealth, being careful not to reveal its minions, but now that the task was complete, it can do whatever it wants to now, possess whoever it wants to... the whole world was at its command, and it couldn't wait to begin...

xxLilBunny couldn't sleep, although it wasn't for lack of trying. She laid on her bed, wide awake in her dormitory, not knowing what to do. She suddenly realised that her alliance was to play against TeamRocket in an upcoming Club War, and she was all but broke. Rushing to the pilot, she took the next plane bound for Mara...

xxLilBunny arrived in the Knight Shelter of Mara and looked around. She wanted to kill Skalari for their Mars which they occasionally drop. As she was heading towards the base of the pyramids, however, she passed the entrance to the Red Desert Ruins...

...and noticed that Akbar was missing.

Not knowing what she would find inside, but bored beyond belief, she prepared herself. Her senses sharpened, allowing her to dodge attacks with greater precision. She readied her claws, and went inside.

Upon entering, she looked around. So far, no sign of any Skalari, which was, as xxLilBunny thought, both good and bad. As her eyes got accustomed to the darkness ahead, she noticed dark red stains on the wall and the ceiling, and her stomach lurched slightly. Forcing herself to ignore this, she went onwards...

As she expertly dodged an endless swarm of attacks in a twisty corridor splattered with blood, she wondered if she should just leave and never come back... she sensed something at the end of the cave... something sinister...

As she rounded the final corner and hid behind a stalagmite splattered with the same red substance as the rest of the cave, she saw it.

A massive towering scorpion, eyes glowing a violent green, while its body emanated green flames. xxLilBunny stared, horrified, as it walked around. Suddenly, she saw another giant Skalari - the original inhabitant of the cave. It looked sinister, but nowhere as sinister as the Scorpion King.

Sinister green silhouettes appeared from behind xxLilBunny as Noemig, Pypski and Viewtifulboi grabbed her, and forced her towards the Scorpion King, while the Skalari surrounding her watched with interest.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A spy?" The Scorpion King demanded, staring at xxLilBunny. Its mandibles hardly moved, but xxLilBunny heard the words clear - it had established a telepathic link in the blink of an eye. xxLilBunny stayed silent, not knowing what to reply, but she didn't have to. The next moment, two flashes of lightning had shot out of the Scorpion King's eyes. As if in slow motion, xxLilBunny saw the lightning approach her. She quickly did a backflip, wrenching her arms free in the process, and landed behind the three minions which had captured her. The next moment, she quickly sprinted away as the three minions were struck by the bolts of lightning...

As she desperately tried to escape, she heard a fierce crackling behind her. She chanced a look back, and immediately regretted doing so as she saw countless numbers of green lightning bolts chasing her, occasionally attempting to strike her, but she dodged them with relative ease. As she emerged out into the Mara sky, she immediately headed towards the airplane.

Back inside the cave, the Scorpion King and its minions watched silently as xxLilBunny boarded the next plane to her school. She had seen what had happened... the Scorpion King wasn't going to give up without a fight... she must not reach the school and tell the others...

They vanished in a flash of lightning, which shot straight up into the night sky...

On board the plane, the pilot suddenly spotted something as they flew over Neo Kansas.

"Fasten your seatbelts, we might be approaching some turbulence," she said, turning to face xxLilBunny.

"Yeah, I know about the tornadoes around these parts," xxLilBunny replied.

"No... it's not that. I'm used to them too, and I can navigate past them fine - I've done it hundreds of times before... but this is something else... something weird, so put on your seatbelt."

"What is it?" xxLilBunny said, afraid of the reply...

"It appears to be some sort of... erm... storm... of green lightning...?" the Pilot answered, puzzled, and xxLilBunny's worst fears were confirmed...

As they flew towards the Knight Shelter, bolts of green lightning suddenly began to strike the plane, hitting its wings and the windshield, shattering it. With more flashes of lightning, the fuel tank had been hit, and its thrusters had also been disabled. One more strike, and the Pilot had been hit. She flew out of the plane and fell to the ground below as the plane descended ever closer towards the ground...

xxLilBunny stared in horror as another flash of lightning meant that the wing detached and flew off. She knew she was going to crash, but before she could react, another flash of lightning struck beside her, which she dodged. JapansAce materialised beside her, where the lightning bolt had struck, and held her claws to xxLilBunny's throat, as the plane hit the ground with a thud and began to skid towards the Forbidden Mine...

JapansAce still held her claws to xxLilBunny's throat. She was trying to resist, but had no choice - the telepathic link between herself and the Scorpion King was too strong. Suddenly, she noticed the Forbidden Mine fast approaching, and had no choice but to vanish in a bolt of lightning, moments before the plane crashed into the Forbidden Mine and was engulfed by a giant fireball...


	12. Chapter 12

**12. Race for Survival**

As the plane skidded towards the Forbidden Mine, xxLilBunny found herself able to move again as JapansAce quickly vanished. Moments before the plane hit the Forbidden Mine, xxLilBunny jumped out and quickly dived behind a nearby pile of logs. She watched, hidden behind the log pile, as the plane burst into flames...

But her ordeal wasn't over yet - she had been spotted by the Scorpion King, who realised that the telepathic link between it and her was still active - meaning that she was still alive...

A flash of green lightning struck the pile of logs and xxLilBunny was slammed into the hill by one of them. This was immediately followed by another, which, if it had struck only five inches more to the left, would have shattered her respawn device. She immediately got up and sprinted towards the Forest of Silence - she would run to Hillville and notify the others. She couldn't risk the life of another pilot, and besides, she herself was already outnumbered ten to one. She couldn't endanger the life of someone else...

With a tremendous boom, the engine of the crashed airplane suddenly exploded. xxLilBunny was thrown to the ground by the force of the explosion as lightning bolts rained down around her, narrowly missing her...

She picked herself up and began sprinting away again, moments before another lightning bolt struck where her head was...

xxLilBunny continued running for her life. Lightning bolts struck behind her, and she swerved left and right to dodge them. Occasionally, one of the bolts hit a Skalari, and it was immediately obliterated...

As xxLilBunny ran through the Forest of Silence, she couldn't help but notice that the lightning bolts seemed to be striking repeatedly in a circle around her, and they were getting closer...

She only had a limited time to react as she kept running forward..

As the next strike of ten lightning bolts landed feet away from her, she immediately sprinted forwards out of the circle. The next moment, all ten lightning bolts struck at one location, the place where she would have been, had she not sprinted...

She had now reached the Ghost Town - there were only Greenville and James Isle left to run through before everyone would know the truth of what had happened inside the Red Desert Ruins. Dodging back and forth, she managed to misdirect the green bolts of lightning as the Scorpion King and its minions attempted to hit her. Gasping and out of breath, she saw Dyrano Cave in the distance and decided to take refuge inside it.

She ran inside the dark cave full of Skalari puppets, and sat down near the entrance, a safe distance away from them. She breathed heavily, and heaved a sigh of relief - the Scorpion King couldn't possibly get her there...

Suddenly, the cave began to tremble. xxLilBunny stared around, horrified. She didn't know what was happening, and hid in a corner, near the entrance...

Outside the cave, the Scorpion King and its minions repeatedly struck Dyrano Cave over and over again. xxLilBunny looked outside and to her horror saw that boulders were gradually being knocked off, blocking the entrance and sealing her in. Forced with no choice, she dashed out and continued running, as a giant rock missed her by millimetres...

As she ran across the Bridge of Fog towards Greenville, the Scorpion King decided to drown her. Bolts of lightning struck at both ends of the bridge, attempting to collapse it. xxLilBunny knew that she didn't have a lot of time. There was one minion working at each end of the bridge, while four attempted to strike xxLilBunny directly as she ran. Suddenly, Noemig, Viewtifulboi, JapansAce and Runaria materialised in front of xxLilBunny, blocking her path...

As more and more pieces of the bridge fell into the water below, xxLilBunny was trapped between a lightning bolt and four minions...

"Guys... we're all friends, right? And... and... friends wouldn't hurt each other, right?"

The lightning strikes suddenly stopped, and Viewtifulboi, Runaria, JapansAce and Noemig stopped their advance. If xxLilBunny had taken another step backwards, then she would have no doubt fallen into the river...

The Scorpion King ordered its minions to attack over and over again, but they did nothing. How dare they disobey him?! These were the best people it could find, and here they were, not attacking because of some words?! "Weak..." it thought to itself.

One final lightning bolt from the Scorpion King itself struck xxLilBunny directly, and she flew off of the bridge and into the river...

Many of the dormitories of Owl School were left open. Magics had insisted that there was no need to panic, since they had trapped the Scorpion King already inside Itnin's tomb - or so he thought...

xxLilBunny sprinted into the Owl dormitories. She quickly spotted that all the doors had been left open. She looked inside each one of them, spotting Magics, HuguesdePayens, SnowOwl, Domennico, Kimina, Yuumei, Ciggss and Fuchsia, amongst others. She went into Magics's room, and poked him awake.

"Ow... oh, it's you, Bunny... how's things?" Magics asked, a bit sleepily, turning around to look at her.

Suddenly, xxLilBunny glowed an evil green, and a haze of green mist began to pass out of her...

Magics yelled out loud and quickly jumped off the bed moments before he would have been possessed. He leapt out of a window and ran towards the airplane, with xxLilBunny sprinting in hot pursuit after him.

Just as Magics jumped out of the dormitory, unseen to him, ten jets of green lightning struck the dormitories, but he was deaf to these noises. All he could think about was getting away from there as soon as possible, away from his helpless friend as she tried furiously to catch up...

He jumped inside the plane, and told the Pilot one word - "Mara." Before the Pilot could ignite the throttle, however, he had jumped out of the other side through a window. He slammed the window shut with a tremendous bang, as xxLilBunny ran into it and the throttle was started. Magics quickly dashed to the other side and slammed the door shut, as the plane takes off moments afterwards...

Magics heaved a sigh of relief. That had been a close call. He quickly went back to his dormitory...

But he only found a pile of rubble.

Magics resumed looking at the pile of rubble in shock. How was that possible?! He'd only left for a few minutes at most... So many people were in there... He started searching the debris for anyone he could find, but could find nobody - no Yuumei, no Ciggss, no HuguesdePayens, no StrangerD3RK, no Kimina... not anyone. "That's weird," he thought to himself... but this thought was quickly turned to guilt - he had told everyone to sleep with their doors open... common sense then took over as he told himself that a locked door could not possibly keep the Scorpion King's bolt of lightning out of the room should it launch an attack... and at the same time, he deduced what must have happened... the Scorpion King must have managed to escape from the tomb, and now, whoever it's possessing, is launching a new attack... and nobody is safe...

Looking around him in disbelief, he also saw Mecher Melanie and Dr. Chow on the floor, their eyes staring into space, an expression of shock etched forever on their faces...

"Well... good riddance there," Magics thought - the Mecher was always breaking gear and Chow had nothing but junk to offer anyway, and he viewed it as karma.

But no... there must be SOMEONE still left... Magics quickly started his journey around Kasmari, searching for survivors, while at the same time, the Scorpion King searched for more victims...

In a desloate area of the Forest of Silence, the Dark Oracles stared in horror as their barracks were crushed by the wreckage of a plane. A cold, bloodstained hand stuck out from underneath the debris of the crashed plane, still and unmoving, while a green outline faded into the distance...


	13. Chapter 13

**13. The Discovery**

Magics reached the Dragon dormitories and found it standing. Either the Scorpion King had not reached this place yet, or it had deliberately left it there. Magics felt slightly jealous in either case - but quickly dispelled these throughts as his own words inside Itnin's tomb came echoing back to him - there mustn't be any dispute between the rest of them now, or it will make it easy for the Scorpion King to strike...

He searched around in the Dragon dormitories, but couldn't find anyone. He felt slightly uneasy, but convinced himself that they must be out hunting. After all - it was almost afternoon.

As Magics stepped out of the dormitory towards the direction of Sunset Pier, a voice from the gym announced through a megaphone, "Dragon Lushen has finally taken down Owl Viewtifulboi! Viewtifulboi still leads nine to one!"

Youki and his daughter were practising their duelling skills in Greenville. Youki had raised his daughter well in this respect - her skills were now pretty evenly matched with his, if not better. As he got up from the ground for the eighth time after being knocked unconscious, he thought about what life would have been like if his wife hadn't... but all that was in his imagination now, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"8-6 to me, daddy!" Birou exclaimed excitedly, but her father was lost in thought.

If only his wife hadn't disappeared... life would be so different... he imagined the four of them - himself, his wife, Birou, and her sister, having picnics in Neo Kansas with the cows surrounding them, laughing as one of them was thrown thirty feet away by a tornado...

"Dad!" Birou almost screamed, trying to grab Youki's attention.

Youki imagined Birou and Hika chasing each other, testing out their combat skills, having mock duels and the such. He wished that his life was that way... he wished that he didn't have to give Hika up for adoption... even if it was to one of his close friends... but there was nothing he could do... it was too stressful for him to look after two children on top of worrying about his wife...

Youki suddenly felt himself shaking violently, and snapped out his reverie to see Birou with her hands on his shoulders.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was just thinking..."

"About what?" Birou asked.

"About..." Youki thought, he didn't want to tell Birou what he had actually been thinking about, for fear of triggering more questions about their painful past. "About how much better your skills are! In a few more years you'll easily surpass me," he grinned.

Birou looked annoyed. "Dad, it's 8-6 to me, I think I've already surpassed you."

"Maybe..." Youki murmured, as he went back to thinking about what his life could have been.

"Birou! Youki! Am I glad to see you!" Came a familiar voice.

Youki was snapped out of his trance for good, and turned around to face the speaker. He watched as Magics walked up to him and his daughter, Kilai and Cristina behind him.

"Where were you guys?"

"After you told us to go to sleep, Birou and I have been practising combat skills here," Youki replied.

Magics sighed. This meant that they hadn't gone back to the Dragon dormitories. He still had no idea if the Scorpion King had visited there or not...

"The Scorpion King completely destroyed the Owl dormitories," Magics said, somewhat grimly, while everyone else looked shocked.

"Oh no... who's missing?" Birou asked.

"A whole lot of people... Uii, Yuu, Derky, Kari..." Magics struck the names off his finger.

"Wait, tell me exactly what happened," Youki said.

Magics recounted what he had been doing in his dormitory and how xxLilBunny had woken him up; about how he had been chased but had shaken her off, and about what happened next...

"Hm... so you didn't find anything when you went back?"

Magics shook his head. "Just a big pile of rubble," he replied.

Youki looked worried. "Where did you go afterwards?"

"Looking for anyone I can find. Kiwi and Cris were at James Isle," Magics replied.

"Well, you've found four," Youki said. "What now?"

"Keep looking, I guess," Magics told him. "Come with us, it's safer in numbers. I have no idea where the Pypski is right now."

Nobody, apart from a select few, knew about the resurrection...

Viewtifulboi and Lushen emerged in Fortville after their match and a little chat. As they walked in through the gates, they saw Magics walking around hurriedly, as if he had lost something...

"Don't attack. Follow him and wait for my signal," said a distorted voice inside their heads simultaneously, as JapansAce materalised in a flash of green behind the two of them, holding her toaster.

Magics, Kilai, Cristina, Birou and Youki arrived in Greenville, where they found no sign of the Scorpion King, or any green lightning. As they patrolled the area, they came across Spycer, Zulfequar and Confucius. By the looks of things, Spycer hadn't told Zulfequar or Confucius about what had happened of late, and he can hardly blame her. The two of them had only seen the flashes of green lightning several days before as they were initially investigating the incident. No doubt the thought had now passed out of their mind completely, but nevertheless they were still in danger, and as Magics approached them, Zulfequar and Confucius quickly turned and readied their weapons.

"Spycer!" Magics shouted, "There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"

"Magics!" Spycer replied, equally excited and somewhat confused, while the other two looked puzzled. "What happened?"

"Something bad just happened," Magics returned, then looked at the other two, "come with us if you want to live."

Taken aback and somewhat shocked, the three of them followed Magics, Kilai, Birou, Cristina and Youki as they continued their search for more people who, miraculously, haven't yet fallen under the Scorpion King's power, when suddenly...

"Hey...! Wait up...!" came a familiar voice from behind them.

Everyone turned around to face the voice, and initially saw nobody. But then, StrangerD3RK stepped out from behind a tree - she had been picking Momo fruits, and her bag was once again full of them.

"Derky!" cried Birou suddenly, turning around, as everyone else followed suit.

"Derky!" Magics exclaimed, hardly able to believe it. "What happened?! How did you survive?!"

Everyone else looked puzzled, including StrangerD3RK.

"What do you mean? I was here all along," she said, somewhat quizzically.

"The Scorpion King attacked the Owl dormitories, and there's a lot of people missing,"

"I was here all the time, collecting more Momos," came the Momo Overlord's reply, "and what do you mean, the Scorpion King attacked? I thought we sealed it inside an pyramid...!"

"I mean, it must have escaped. And Bunny's gotten herself possessed too..." Magics replied, "and maybe a whole lot of people sleeping in our dormitory, after the attack I couldn't find anything!"

"Well, there's nothing you can do now," StrangerD3RK reassured him, while everyone else looked horrified.

"NOOOOOOO NOT BUNNY!" cried Kilai and Birou in unison, while Cristina looked on the verge of tears.

"That's not all," Magics said grimly. "The Scorpion King killed Dr. Chow and Melanie."

These words did not have the effect that Magics had hoped. Instead of looking worried, everyone sighed of relief.

"Oh, thank goodness, Chow's gear were always terrible, and Melanie was really bad too, she kept breaking everything," Youki said.

"N-no! I mean, I agree with you, but you're missing the point!" Magics cried, while everyone else nodded in agreement with Youki.

"I hope the replacement is a lot better than THEY used to be," said Birou.

Magics spluttered hopelessly - they didn't get it. None of them did. This isn't about revenge on the Mecher and Dr. Chow, they were taking this the wrong way... but before he could reply, he was interrupted suddenly by Zulfequar.

"Wait a sec, will someone PLEASE tell us what the heck's going on?"

Magics looked surprised for a moment, but then he replied,

"Spy'll fill you in eventually, but right now we need to look for more people."

Viewtifulboi, Lushen and JapansAce emerged from behind some trees as the group made its way towards the Forest of Silence. They had heard everything.

Passing by the Knight Shelter in the Forest of Silence, Magics spotted someone sitting on the bench, crying. Several other familiar faces were around her, comforting her.

"Hatake! Sahara! Rhain! What're you guys doing here?" Magics asked, hurrying over, while the others followed.

"You don't want to know..." Rhainbow sobbed.

"We found something at the Dark Oracles' base," Hatake filled in. "It looked like a crashed plane..."

Magics looked shocked. "Did you find anyone?" he inquired suddenly.

"No - we didn't dare go any closer, whatever crashed it might still be nearby..." Sahara said.

"Let's go take a look," Magics decided. There are twelve of us, which, to be honest, was more than what I was hoping to find..."

Magics walked slowly towards the base of the Dark Oracles, not expecting what he was to find...

"Whoa, what happened here?!" Magics asked, evidently in shock, as he stared at the pile of wreckage which was the plane that Bunny had crashed.

"Looks like it was going towards Mara," remarked Spycer.

Mara...

The word echoed inside Magics's head. That was the word which he had told the pilot at Hillville, while he was being chased by...

"Bunny did this..." he said with a growl, while the others looked shocked.

"Perhaps now would be a good time to tell us what's-" started Confucius, who was interrupted by a scream the next moment.

"OH MY GOD!" yelled Sahara, pointing at something sticking out from underneath the pile of wreckage - a stiff, bloody hand, cold to the touch. Magics recognised the sleeve...

"That's the pilot..." Magics said slowly...

"W-w-we should go..." stammered Kilai, not looking at the hand.

"Agreed," said Hatake. "Let's check Neo Kansas and Mara, and then head back..."

As the group walked away from the wreckage towards Neo Kansas, Confucius, Rhainbow and Zulfequar being filled in by Spycer, Viewtifulboi, Lushen and Japansace emerged from behind a hill they were hiding.

"They've found one," Viewtifulboi said.

"Not yet. Let's see what they're up to," replied JapansAce, as the three of them resumed following...

Outside the Forbidden Mine, Yuumei, Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii, MaximusArk, Sturm, Focusman and Mirabella stared in shock at another wreckage, this time blackened from the fireball which had engulfed it. Nobody could be found inside, and if there had been anyone surely either the impact of the crash, the fireball which followed, or the explosion which had followed that, would have certainly killed them. They were still staring when Magics and the others walked up behind them.

"Grim, isn't it?" Sturm quietly remarked, when he spotted the others.

"Not another one..." Rhainbow retched, unable to keep her food down for much longer, and stared away.

"Whoever was in here would've been burnt to cinders," MaximusArk said, and everyone else could see that he had a point.

"Well, it looks like everyone got out in time...!" StrangerD3RK said, as everyone else looked relieved.

"They've found the other one too..." Lushen said quietly as he, Viewtifulboi and JapansAce observed the others from the top of the hill into which the Forbidden Mine opened into.

"Wait, now's not the time yet. The Scorpion King hasn't given the signal yet," Viewtifulboi said.

There was a clang as JapansAce's toaster connected with the back of Viewtifulboi's skull.

"Who cares?! If we let them keep going they'll discover our base!"

"Will you two keep it down?! Or do you want them to spot us?!" Lushen scolded both of them, threatening to decapitate both of them by placing a claw behind each of their necks as he did so.

"Well... looks like there's nothing more to see here... I'm assuming the Exorcist and the Nurse both fled for it when they saw the plane coming...""Yeah... I definitely hope they did," Magics said. They didn't need any more deaths, not now. "Let's keep looking, maybe there'll be more clues in Mara... and more people who haven't been influenced yet."

Viewtifulboi, Lushen and JapansAce watched as the others walked away. Behind the three of them laid the bodies of Exorcist Stigma and the Nurse, while the Pilot's one laid undiscovered on the roof of a barn, having been deposited there by a tornado...

Back in Fortville, green bolts of lightning struck the Dragon dormitory without mercy as people ran for their lives...

As the group reached Mara, followed closely by Viewtifulboi, JapansAce and Lushen, Magics proposed that everyone take a short break, as they had walked a lot that day, and it was nearly evening.

"You're only saying it's nearly evening because it's always night here..." sulked Sahara, although she was tired, and immediately sat down on a stool.

They were now dangerously close to the Red Desert Ruins, and Viewtifulboi, JapansAce and Lushen suddenly heard a deep, distorted voice inside their heads.

"What're you waiting for?! Do you want them to find our base?! Attack!"

Three jets of green lightning streaked across the sky and each struck a table, cleanly splitting it into two pieces as Viewtifulboi, JapansAce and Lushen materialised out of thin air.

In the mass confusion and hysteria that followed, Zulfequar managed to slip away from the others. He watched in terror as the Scorpion King's hypnotised minions attempted to kill their own friends, and was secretly glad that he had escaped. Spotting a cave nearby, he ran into it for safety, as everyone else ran, as a group, away from the Knight Shelter...

But someone was already there, waiting for him at the entrance of the Red Desert Ruins, as a silhouette glowing bright green snuck up behind him...

Zulfequar felt someone behind him, and turned around. A scream immediately pierced the air, but was unheard by anyone else except the two who were now in the cave. This was cut short abruptly, as a green glow illuminated the ground outside of the cave entrance...


	14. Chapter 14

**14. The Looming Darkness**

The Scorpion King struck the Dragon dormitories with no mercy, possessing anyone it can find who didn't run for their lives. It felt good to have this power back again, but it remembered the high cost which it had to pay... and didn't regret anything. In its mind, it had been all worth it, every single last bit...

=====================**Many years ago...**====================

A young explorer of extraordinary skill and combative talent wandered into Mara. his eyes full of ambition. He had the uncommon combo of a bag and a sword on him, and, as soon as he stepped foot in Mara, took out a metal detector and a spade, and started scanning for treasure. He had heard that there were great riches buried in Mara from an archaeologist's random mumbling - "if you know where to dig."

After scanning nearby, but finding no treasure, he sat down, tired, and opened his bag, revealing a sandwich, which he quickly ate to recover his stamina. He then resumed, one hand dragging his spade through the desert, one hand holding his metal detector in front of him as he went. Every so often as he combed the Knight Shelter inch by inch, he would hear a beeping from his detector, get excited, and started to dig, but every time only finding a worthless Mar which some foolish person must have dropped, but he pocketed it nevertheless.

After leaving no stone unturned and no civilians unasked near the Knight Shelter, the explorer began to explore the surroundings. These were a little more hostile, but the monsters were nothing that the explorer couldn't handle. He was in the 9001st Grade - a grade which had been especially made for him, owing to his abilities, and true to his skill, he dispatched the monsters with ease. As he came across a mysterious marble stone, Ice Scorpions surrounded him, their pincers clicking viciously.

Aware that the ice scorpions are only alive because the desert is cold at night, he quickly grabbed some wood from inside his bag and lit a fire, repelling the Ice Scorpions. While they were dazed, he quickly slew each and every one with a single stroke of his sword...

A hooded, floating figure from afar watched his progress, a giant scythe in its hand. Two miniature versions of itwere flanking the bigger one, except that their faces were visible through their hood - nothing less than skulls, glinting white in the darkness of the desert, and each holding a miniature, but nevertheless potent, scythe.

The bigger creature turned around and slashed the air behind it. A bright streak of white shone briefly as the scythe cut into the fabric of space itself, which seemed to disentangle along the path the scythe had just traced, providing it with a pathway into a rift. The three creatures entered, and the fissure sealed behind them, as if nothing had happened...

The explorer continued to look for his prize. He had found gold of varying ages, had found treasure beyond description, but his eyes were set on the ultimate prize - a prize beyond any other - a power so immense that Kasmari itself will tremble beneath it, so powerful it would be considered a curse to the whole of

But to do so, first he must find someone... or someTHING... which had access to that power... but he had heard of such things, and they were elusive to find, and only reveal themselves to you at a specific location... but where, exactly, was failed to have been mentioned.

The explorer suddenly spotted the entrance to an old deserted temple, and decided to go inside, replacing the spade and metal detector into his bag as he did so. As he fought through the monsters inside with ease, he wondered if the creature would show itself - but no. At the end of the second floor, after he had guided an Examination Officer through the deserted temple, Imhotep was waiting for him. He slew the mummy with ease, and retraced his steps back into the newly-risen sunlight of Mara.

As the explorer expected as he emerged from the darkness of the Temple, the Ice Scorpions were no longer there, reduced to mere areas of wet sand which then quickly evaporated. Feeling smug, he quickly walked towards the next cave he saw - which was filled with various ants of all sizes, Sandmen, and other weird monsters. Again he fought through these with ease, bringing them down with a swipe of his sword, and again, the creature which he was looking for was nowhere to be found...

One by one he combed through the pyramids of Mara. Arfa, Sitha and Itnin fought valiantly, but were still no match to the explorer's skills. With several well-timed and well-aimed thrusts of his sword and barely breaking a sweat, Anu, Biss and Arfa all fell onto the floor, defeated. He claimed his prize and sold it for a handsome amount of Mar to a wandering Nurse nearby, but all the time the creature had not shown itself...

The penultimate stop for him was Sand Cave. He was getting tired now, but not from exhaustion, for he was barely breaking a sweat. He was tired of searching for the creature, whilst it never revealed itself to him. As Aladdin hit the floor with a groan, the creature still did not appear. In a fit of rage, the explorer thrust his swords at the treasure chests laid within the cave, which splintered and vomited a pile of gold objects on the ground. Thinking that he might as well take some, he grabbed some of the gold objects and stuffed it into his bag, and then made his way back out into the desert day.

"This is my last chance, if it's not here, then..." the explorer wondered what he would do should his quest fail, but failed to think of anything, so he silently walked up the stairs, and entered Shadow Valley.

The first room reminded him of Arfa's tomb, and as he steadily progressed through it, his hopes of seeing the creature were fading. Once the giant monster at the end was gone, he progressed into the portal...

...and emerged into a cave reminiscent of Itnin's tomb. Feeling slightly bored, he progressed through this one too, and another portal waited for him at the end, to emerge in a duplicate of the pyramid which contained Sitha.

As he slaughtered the boss with ease and progressed through the energy barrier and past the platforms, he saw a giant mummy, more sinister than anything he had ever seen before, by the name of Lele.

As he battled Lele fiercely, swinging his sword side to side, he became aware that he was dangerously close to falling into the electric pit. Thankfully, Lele was almost defeated, and as he swung his sword up for the final blow...

He felt himself flying away from Lele as if by a magical force, falling into the electric pit...

Electric shocks stunned his body as he tried desperately to escape, but it was no use. He had been stunned and was quickly overpowered by the electric pit...

Suddenly, he found himself on the ground, very weak, and Lele laid in a corner, defeated. He stared around him - surely someone must have been here... as he looked around on the floor, bewildered, he saw a flash of white travel down in a straight vertical line, as the fabric of space itself opened into a rift...

The creature which had been observing the explorer in Mara, along with its two "companions", now bore down upon him.

"To die such an untimely death, by a method so cruel..." it rasped, and, although its hood was merely a foot away from the explorer's face or two, he couldn't feel its breath on his face.

"Talent such as yours can easily be used elsewhere. For greater purposes. This is why I am offering you a choice."

The explorer looked, shocked, at the thing underneath the cloak. Was this what he had been looking for...?

"I will give you ultimate power. The power to rule all of Kasmari."

The explorer's eyes lit up. This WAS it!

"Your end of the bargain?" the creature thought for a moment, "Write a book."

"What sort of book?" The explorer asked.

"A memoir. Of everything you remember of Mara. It may... help you."

The explorer jotted down all he remembered of Mara, its Ice Scorpions, its many caves, and of course, his quest.

"Excellent," the creature replied, as it scribbled an epilogue to the book. "I'll keep this. You have your deal."

The creature flicked through the book for inspiration, and came across the word "scorpion". He chuckled to himself maliciously, and began granting the explorer's wish...

Outside, the sunlight faded and was replaced by the midnight moon, as the Ice Scorpions began to reform in a world of eternal night...

Two Knights suddenly burst into the room, one a Priest, and the other, a Heavy Launcher. The Priest was from Owl School whilst the Heavy Launcher from Dragon. Upon encountering the two, they immediately raised their weapons.

"What IS that?!" the Heavy Launcher exclaimed.

"I'm... not sure," the Priest said, evidently at a loss for words.

"Well, whatever it is, let's kill it!" the Heavy Launcher urged.

The Priest and Heavy Launche preceeded to attack the newly risen Scorpion King and the robed creature. The two groups met at the middle of the platforms in the Sitha-esque cave, and a fierce battle then raged with the Priest and Heavy Launcher jumping all over the area, avoiding the electric pit below, while the Scorpion King and the robed creature and its two minions gave chase, but their attacks were expertly dodged by the Priest and Heavy Launcher, as they jumped from platform to platform.

"Freeze it in midair, so it falls into the pit," the Priest suggested to his accomplice.

The Heavy Launcher obliged, and stood still on a platform, waiting for the Scorpion King and the hooded creature to reach him. As the four creatures made the final jump from the adjacent platform, the Heavy Launcher quickly shot four jets of ice towards them, freezing them and forcing them to fall to the pit below, where they were eventually overcome by the electrified floors...

Victorious, the two people gathered and looked at their achievement.

"So, what should we do?" asked the Heavy Launcher.

"Hm, what's that?" the Priest said, spotting a book which had fallen out of the hooded creature's folds.

"I'm not sure, but get it up here, we can probably do something useful with it," his companion replied.

An idea suddenly popped up into the Priest's mind. He quickly muttered a spell, which sealed the souls of the hooded creature and its minions inside the book.

"Right, as long as nobody reads this entire book, and as long as whatever that creature was didn't leave its name in here, it should remain trapped in here," the Priest said, and turned to the Scorpion King. "Now, as for that one... it looks more dangerous..."

The Priest muttered a spell, which caused it to disappear. A green mist remained, however, and divided itself into two.

"There, now the spirit has been bisected," the Priest told his companion.

"We should hide it in different locations, preferrably underground," the Heavy Launcher remarked.

Both of them thought for a moment, and neither wanted to dig a huge hole...

"Hey, you know the well? The one in Fortville?" the Heavy Launcher suddenly had an idea.

"There's a similar one in the Forest of Silence, if I'm not mistaken," the Priest added.

"Exactly. Let's just toss each half down there," the Heavy Launcher said. "We can ward people off by having it give off a green glow."

This plan sounded good, and the two carried it out. However, the book containing the spirit of the hooded figure had fallen out of the Priest's robes as he hurried over from Fortville to the Forest of Silence...

The Heavy Launcher and the Priest stared at the well, as the Priest muttered a spell. Suddenly a green glow erupted from within the well and shot into the sky.

"There... let's hope that should deter anyone wanting to stick their heads into it..." the Priest said.

"Hopefully," the Heavy Launcher remarked, and the two walked away.

=====================**Present day...**=======================

A student from Owl School was walking around the Garbage Disposal Site - he had been assigned the Weekly Designated Cleaner post. As he rummaged through the trash reluctantly, he came by a book, which looked to be at least several hundred years old, but perfectly preserved. He began to flick through the pages, catching phrases now and again...

The book described the Mara desert, but not as it was like today... it focused in particular at the peculiar behaviour of the Ice Scorpions, but even stranger was the epilogue, which seemed to have been added by another person, noting the handwriting differences:

"This is the memoirs of a brave and valient explorer, who was cursed with the spirit of the Scorpion shortly after the book was finished. The explorer's skills matched no other; he could cleave through a wall of Skalari with one swipe of his sword. However, despite his skill, a careless moment saw him pushed into an electric pit whilst in combat with the Lord of Shadow Valley, Lele. I showed myself to him and offered him a deal moments before he would have otherwise perished. He gladly accepted, and thus became the creature which is now the most feared in all of Kasmari, unleashing a curse upon the whole of Mara in the process. Mara is now no longer what has been described in this memoir, but a place of eternal night. To those who discover the book, you hold the most powerful object ever created in the palm of your hand."

The end of the epilogue was signed and dated, some hundreds of years ago:

"The Wraith Lord."

At that moment, a bolt of green lightning suddenly struck the book out of the student's hand, and the Scorpion King materialised, having finished its assault on the Dragon dormitories.

"Stealing things which don't belong to us now, are we?" the Scorpion King asked the student, through the telepathic link which it had formed in an instant.

"N...no...-"

"How did you get this book?!" the Scorpion King demanded.

"I found it... in one of the trash cans..." the student stammered, scared out of his wits.

The Scorpion King could see that the student was too weak to be of any use to him. He surely wouldn't have understood a single word of what he had written in his book all those years ago... leaving the student beside a trash can, utterly petrified, it disappeared in a flash of green lightning, taking the book with it.

The student immediately ran back to the school and informed the Headmaster what he had seen, using only four words - Wraith Lord, Mara, and curse. The Headmaster understood straight away.

"This is urgent business. Inform the Dragon Headmaster at once, as well as anyone you come across."

The student nodded, and set off towards the direction of the gym, towards Fortville...


	15. Chapter 15

**15. The Headmaster's Message**

The student ran across the gym, heading for the main building of Dragon School...

As he reached the middle, several flashes of green lightning shot overhead. He stopped and looked around him, very alert. Behind him, Pypski and DayBunny materialised as the lightning struck the ground. The student turned around to face them.

"Am I glad to see you! Do you know where the Dragon Headmaster is?"

A voice stirred in DayBunny and Pypski's heads...

"Of course," DayBunny replied.

'We'll lead you to it," Pypski said, with a grin.

"Thanks so much," the student replied. He had never seen Fortville before, and was afraid that he might get lost by himself.

He followed Pypski and DayBunny towards the Dragon School's main building, but before they had walked a few steps, another flash of green shot overhead...

Behind the student, the bolt of lightning struck the ground, and the Scorpion King materialised, along with Noemig, Runaria and Zulfequar.

Pypski and DayBunny suddenly turned around, forcing the student backwards, into the circle created by the others. Once the circle was sealed, DayBunny immediately shot a bolt of lightning towards the student, paralysing him. Noemig followed up with four ice blasts, encasing him in ice, as someone snuck up behind him...

A claw located the neck of the student. Suddenly, it pulled backwards, before the student had time to do anything...

A splurt of scarlet, which peppered the ground at the student's feet, before he himself fell to the ground with a dull thud.

"Excellent, Zulfequar," the Scorpion King praised him.

The Scorpion King and its minions vanished from the gym with a brilliant flash of green, as if nothing had ever happened...

...leaving the messenger lying in a big patch of crimson on the floor of the gym.

The Owl Headmaster was getting worried. He had phoned his Dragon counterpart, but he had heard no word from the messenger, and was getting worried about him. As he walked out of his office and headed to the entrance to the gym, he felt as though someone was watching him...

At the end of the corridor, he looked down the stairs, and saw a green silhouette. The next moment, JapansAce had stepped out of the shadows.

"Oh, phew, it's you, Jace," the Headmaster sighed, but the next moment, JapansAce glowed green, and a mist emerged from within her...

The Headmaster, reacting instinctively, kicked JapansAce in the chest, away from him, and ran past her down the stairs while she was dazed. JapansAce quickly gave chase, as the Headmaster ran out into the gym...

Viewtifulboi materalised in front of him in a flash of green lightning, but the Headmaster quickly slid through his legs. As Viewtifulboi's trousers fell down, JapansAce, who had been focusing purely on chasing the Headmaster, bumped into him and both collapsed to the floor.

"You pathetic fools!" the Scorpion King raged, through the telepathic link inside JapansAce and Viewtifulboi's heads. "I'll get him myself!'

Another flash of lightning, and the path to Dragon School was blocked off. The Scorpion King stood before the Headmaster, clicking its claws furiously.

The Headmaster quickly prepared, and was ready for it, just as it lashed out its claw...

The Headmaster jumped and landed swiftly on top of the claw. He then raced along it. He looked around quickly as he did so, and noticed the corner of something which looked like a book, but now was not the time to investigate further - far from it. He kept running, until he was near the face of the Scorpion King itself. Before it had time to hypnotise him, he had somersaulted over onto its back. The sting tried furiously to stab him as the Headmaster landed on the Scorpion King's back, and after several near misses, during which the Headmaster was scratched by it, he leapt back, and the Scorpion King's sting dented its own armour. The Headmaster seized his chance and leapt onto the back of the sting, and as the Scorpion King flicked the sting free, the Headmaster was flicked towards the Dragon School's main building. He quickly grabbed on to a windowsill, and clambered in before the Scorpion King had realised what had happened.

But in the commotion, he hadn't noticed the patch of crimson on the floor of the gym, nor the messenger himself, lying in the middle of it...

Meanwhile, things weren't going too well for the Dragon Headmaster either. The Scorpion King had sent some of its minions - Runaria, xxLilBunny, DayBunny and Pypski - to attack.

Four knocks were heard by the Dragon Headmaster as he sat behind his desk.

"Come in," he replied.

The door was pushed open, revealing four silhouettes, which glowed an ominous green...

"What can I do for you?" the Headmaster asked.

"We just wanted a quick chat," DayBunny said.

"Can I help you?" the Headmaster asked again.

"We came across some 6th Grade skills while we were in the library the other day-" began DayBunny.

That was odd in itself, since neither school has had a library for a long time now, not after that incident... the Headmaster still saw the flames clearly in his mind's eye whenever he pictured the library, and still couldn't believe the events which had led to it. The Owl Headmaster had went through the same thing a few days previously, and the Dragon Headmaster didn't believe it at the time, when his Owl counterpart had told him. He can still see the blazing room clearly, hear the screams of the people trapped inside and the hurried rush of footsteps as librarians tried to save as many books as they could...

"Yes? What is it?" the Dragon Headmaster asked, curious.

"Well, we came across an interesting skill..." DayBunny approached him.

"Let me see," the Headmaster inquired, but DayBunny didn't do anything, except stare into the eyes of the Headmaster, somewhat menacingly.

"Where is it?"

"Just... here," DayBunny said, and a green mist emanated from him...

Without a second thought, the Headmaster grabbed his computer and smashed it into DayBunny's face. DayBunny collapsed, as xxLilBunny and Pypski prepared to attack...

The Owl Headmaster suddenly flipped into the Dragon Headmaster's office and kicked xxLilBunny square in the stomach, forcing her to back away. The Dragon Headmaster seized his chance, jumped onto his table, and bodyslammed Pypski as he jumped off it, forcing her back along with xxLilBunny as well, before either of them could do anything.

DayBunny stirred behind the two Headmasters, and aimed his gun for both of their backs, but the Dragon Headmaster had foreseen this, and aimed a kick behind him, catching DayBunny squarely between the legs. He reached behind him with one arm, and grabbed DayBunny by the chestplate before he had hit the floor, before swinging him in an upwards arc over both Headmasters's heads, the result being that DayBunny moved in a smooth parabola from behind both Headmasters to in front of them, striking Pypski and xxLilBunny as he landed with a crash, resulting in the three of them landing in a heap on the floor just outside the door of the office.

Runaria had been standing watch outside the office in case anything had happened. When she saw her three companions thrown out, she quickly poked her head into the door to check what was going on. To her astonishment she saw both Headmasters standing there, and, without a second throught, tried to run for it, but a thrown book connected with her head with so much force that she stumbled backwards, tripped on Pypski's leg, and collapsed on top of the other three.

"Are you OK?" the Owl Headmaster asked the Dragon one.

"Yeah, I'm fine," the Dragon Headmaster replied. "I've had paperwork that's more challenging than these four."

The Owl Headmaster chuckled.

"Did you want to tell me something?" asked the Dragon Headmaster.

"Yeah, I did..." the Owl Headmaster quickly recounted what had happened with the student half an hour ago, whilst the Dragon Headmaster listened intently.

"Yeah... you're right, this is bad," the Dragon Headmaster replied. "If the Wraith Lord returns, then just imagine what damage it and the Scorpion King can do..."

"We should gather all the students and raid their headquarters," the Owl Headmaster suggested.

Before any one of them could say anything more, a streak of green shot in through the same window which the Owl Headmaster had entered, narrowly missing the two of them, and striking the wall opposite the door.

"Run! It's HIM!" the Owl Headmaster shouted.

The Dragon Headmaster didn't need telling twice, nor did he need to know who 'HIM' was. As the Scorpion King materialised outside the Dragon Headmaster's office, the two Headmasters jumped out of the window that the Scorpion King had entered by, and landed swiftly on their feet in the gym. The two then ran back into the ground floor of the Main Building - the office being on the second floor - and out into Fortville.

"GO! Find all the students!" the Dragon Headmaster shouted, as the Scorpion King chased them from behind.

"I'm on it! You take Sunset Pier, I'll take James Isle, and we'll meet at the entrance to Greenville!" the Owl Headmaster ordered, and as he did so, he glimpsed back at the Scorpion King, and noticed the corner of the mysterious black object which he had seen earlier. The Dragon Headmaster had done the same, and by the look on his face he had seen it too, but this was no time to discuss the matter.

Suddenly, a voice erupted in both of their heads, as the Scorpion King vanished into a bolt of green lightning, and began its electrocution attempt.

"It is futile. I have already destroyed both dormitories. Anyone I found, I possessed, and of that small group which remains, my minions are chasing them down in Mara as we speak. Good luck trying to reach them..."

With that, it let out an evil laugh, and struck the ground so close to the Owl Headmaster that he was knocked off his feet. With a quick sideways roll, he managed to get up and continued running, back towards the gym, for James Isle, as several more bolts of lightning streaked overhead, some towards Sunset Pier, some towards James Isle, attempting to cut both of the Headmasters off...


	16. Chapter 16

**16. Plight of the Headmaster**

The two Headmasters reached James Isle and Sunset Pier, and immediately began to look for anyone they can find. As the Owl Headmaster combed through the Beets and Teebs and other mobs with palindromic names which were the names of other, totally unrelated mobs to the first, he noticed that the Scorpion King had stopped chasing him. He calmed down slightly, and began to search more carefully.

Inside the Red Desert Ruins, someone was fitting a giant metal block into a hole of a metal carapace. As soon as the piece was in place, he took out a remote control, and began to twiddle the knobs on it. The large metal object began to move in a way not unlike a scorpion. The person smiled to himself. The first part was ready...

He quickly busied himself with the other parts, which was to be attached onto the carapace...

The Dragon Headmaster let out a ferocious roar and leapt into the air. He grabbed onto the armour of a huge Skalari and swung himself upwards, towards its face.

The Skalari roared, and attempted to grab the Headmaster, to throw him away...

Too late. The Headmaster's foot connected with the Skalari's face, and it let out a huge roar of pain. With a quick backflip the Headmaster landed on his feet four yards away, as a large cloud of purple mist shot towards him...

The Headmaster jumped to the side, and aimed another sweeping kick for the Skalari's foot, but narrowly missed. The Skalari's fists came crashing down and landed near the Headmaster, the force of impact slamming him into the wall opposite, and he fell to the ground, slightly dazed, but immediately stood back up again. As the Skalari threw his fists downwards, the Headmaster rolled aside, and ran towards the Skalari. Reaching it, he jumped on its back before it had time to recover from its attack, and with one ferocious movement, twisted the Skalari's neck.

The Ghost Enforcer crashed to the floor, and a chest arose from a secret passage beneath the ground, from which the Headmaster collected his reward. However, it was not the one he had been hoping for...

...because nobody was to be found in Cave of the Dead.

The Owl Headmaster ran towards a large patch of green Worms, which began to attack him straight away, but their attacks hardly scratched him as he grabbed the nearest one and swept it in a large circle around him, with such immense speed that pretty soon he was swinging a huge tower of ten Worms stacked on top of each other. As he let go, the stack whirled away from him at a tangent and with a nasty "squelch", the Worms were pulverised by the force of impact between themselves and the wall.

A large mouse appeared before the Headmaster, behind which he could see a missing researcher. He sighed - why does the same researcher always get himself lost in here, and captured by a giant mouse?!

The mouse attacked before he could think any further, and the Headmaster was forced to dodge aside. A tail swung with the force of a whip from nowhere, which hit the Headmaster before he could recover from the first attack, knocking him back whilst he was still on the ground. The Owl Headmaster quickly jumped up and into the air, dodging the mouse's claw, which had tried to hit him. He jumped into the air as the mouse's head followed his movement, trying to gauge his distance for a more precise attack, but before it could do so, the Headmaster had landed on the Skalari's head foot first, and with a powerful kick, the Skalari was quickly dazed. The Headmaster then proceeded to punch the Skalari repeatedly with one hand, the other grabbing a fistful of the Skalari's grey, foul-smelling hair, before backflipping, kicking the creature's stomach in the process, and landing on his feet. The mouse tried to whip the Headmaster with its tail again, but the Headmaster dived through the legs of the mouse, dodging the whip, and grabbed its tail as it swung round. Holding onto the tail in one hand, he leapt up into the air and kicked the creature's neck, and...

A sickening crunch, as the mouse's spine dislocated. The next moment, it had fallen onto the floor. The Headmaster then turned to the researcher.

"Why do you always get stuck in here?! Don't you think you're making my students work overtime trying to save you?!"

"Sorry, I won't get caught next time, I promise!" the Researcher said.

"Anyway, have you seen anybody down here?"

"Nope," the Researcher replied. "Look, I'd better go before they come back. Thanks for rescuing me!"

With that, he ran off into the distance, and the Headmaster quickly followed him. The two of them emerged out of the meteorite, and the Headmaster began to run towards Magma Cave.

The Dragon Headmaster ran towards the entrance to Greenville, and had almost reached it, when...

...several jets of green lightning flashed overhead, and the Headmaster found his way blocked...

...by Gemini, SnowOwl, Bui, CptTatsumiya, Zulfequar, Chinami, and Kimina.

The Dragon Headmaster stood, frozen, as the minions surrounded him in a circle. His mind worked furiously, trying to find a weak spot...

The Owl Headmaster emerged from Magma Cave, but couldn't find anybody. He headed towards Greenville, but like the Dragon Headmaster, his path was blocked by the Scorpion King's minions - Lushen (who had abandoned chasing the others in Mara - there were enough minions without him), Roulette, Ciggss, Fuchsia, MysticLove, xKoorixChan, and Domennico.

The Owl Headmaster began to back away slowly, avoiding the circle in which they were trying to trap him, when there was another flash of green behind him.

The Scorpion King materalised behind him, trapping the Headmaster, whilst back in the Dragon Headmaster's office, xxLilBunny, Runaria, DayBunny and Pypski stirred. The four of them stood up, slightly dazed.

All four heard a voice inside their heads...

...with four separate flashes, Pypski rushed towards James Isle, Runaria towards Sunset Pier, and xxLilBunny and DayBunny towards Mara...

"Are they still chasing us?" Magics said, panting heavily, as he emerged from behind a cactus. The Scorpion King's minions had chased them for at least several laps around Mara now, and he didn't feel as if he could carry on much longer, but they must...

StrangerD3RK's gun dragged heavily behind her in the sand. She was evidently tired, and panted with every step she took. Kilai, Cristina and Rhainbow still retained their stamina, however, they were thirsty beyond belief - the school had, in an absurd moment of absent-mindedness, forgotten to teach them a spell to refill water vessels, and all three, along with Yuumei and Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii, coughed noisily from dehydration. MaximusArk had collapsed the moment they stopped for a rest, and laid splayed out in the sand, his claws still on his back, while Focusman crouched slightly apart from the others, and his weapon, glowing a blinding yellow, laid some distance away. Sahara, Birou and Youki were sitting in a triangle, all three on the verge of falling asleep, while Confucius still crouched behind the remnants of a bush which had long since withered. Hatake was to be found pacing around, trying to think things through, while Spycer quietly laid on the sand, staring up at the moon. Magics himself was also lying on the ground in a similar position to MaximusArk, one hand still holding a safe spot of the cactus.

Suddenly, without warning, a lightning bolt streaked across the sky and struck the cactus. Magics quickly released it, nearly being electrocuted, waking up Sahara, Birou and Youki with a start at the same time.

"Does that answer your question?" Rhainbow said, beginning to run.

"Yup, pretty much, keep running!" Magics panicked, chasing after Rhainbow.

"Here we go again..." sighed Yuumei.

The others followed them reluctantly, as another wave of lightning bolts began targeting the group at Mara...

Amidst the confusion, nobody had noticed that Sturm was missing...

The Owl Headmaster was trapped in a circle by the Scorpion King's minions - the Scorpion King himself had vanished in a blaze of green back to its headquarters as soon as he ensured that the Headmaster was trapped - which was strange, the Headmaster thought. He also noticed that the Scorpion King no longer had the mysterious object with it, but as he dodged a beam of golden light from Roulette's guns, he reminded himself that this wasn't the time to dwell on the matter, as Domennico, Lushen and MysticLove all charged towards him, whle his body was thrown into immense coldness as he was frozen by Kimina and Ciggss. MysticLove, however, chose this time to ignite her hammer on fire and slammed it into the Headmaster, melting his ice prison. As soon as he was free, he grabbed hold of MysticLove's hammer, and threw it from him. MysticLove was forced backwards into Koori, and, as he dodged a flurry of blade strikes from Domennico and Lushen, he launched into a forward roll, which knocked Roulette off her feet. Domennico and Lushen both dashed towards him, but a quick sidestep at the last moment meant that the two of them collided with Ciggss, flooring all three of them. The next moment, he had grabbed Kimina's staff and twisted it from her grasp, and tossed it away. Powerless, Kimina had no choice but to run away.

The Headmaster seized his chance and ran towards Greenville's entrance...

...all of a sudden, a bolt of lightning struck once again in front of him, knocking him backwards...

"I've got this, go help the others," a voice rumbled in the minds of the minions, as the Scorpion King materialised, blocking the entrance...

Seven flashes of green headed towards Sunset Pier, as the Scorpion King's minions disappeared from James Isle...

The Headmaster flew through the air from the impact of the Scorpion King's lightning bolt. However, before he had hit the ground, another bolt of lightning struck behind him, knocking him forwards with so much force that he flew over the head of the Scorpion King, and was almost impaled by the stinger. As he flew towards the creature, he noticed that he could no longer see the edge of the mysterious black object - but this wasn't the time to worry about such trivial things right now.

As he landed in a heap behind the creature, the Scorpion King advanced on Pypski, evidently furious.

Seizing his chance, the Headmaster limped away from the arguing pair, and took out a flask filled with red liquid, some of which he drank, which miraculously healed his wounds and restored his stamina. Gathering pace, he sprinted towards the entrance to Sunset Pier...

Inside the ruins of the ancient civilisation which had once dwelled in the Red Desert Ruins, the person chuckled as he took out a black book from his backpack. It was centuries old, but perfectly preserved - every word was legible, however it had still not been read. Still chuckling, he placed the book inside a cavity in the metal carapace, and sealed it with the final piece, whilst green silhouettes patrolled around him, protecting him from anything which may attempt to ambush him while he worked.

A flash of brilliant gold, followed by the sound of vicious claws, and another newly-risen Skalari fell to the floor moments afterwards, as it headed towards the mysterious person...

The person now busied himself with mini electronic equipment, and as he tried to place a lot of them in one small container with lots of holes on one face, he couldn't help but chuckle again slightly, as a voice behind his mind stirred, and asked about his progress with his project. Upon hearing the reply, the voice sounded contented, and all was silent again.

As the Owl Headmaster reached Sunset Pier, he found the Dragon Headmaster nearby, engaging in a six-way duel with Domennico, Bui, Gemini, Zulfequar, Lushen and MysticLove, whilst Roulette and CptTatsumiya fired golden beams and wave after wave of bullets at him. Ciggss, Kimina, Fuchsia and Runaria were attempting to freeze him with ice spikes. Koori and SnowOwl were doing their best to heal those that the Headmaster had injured. Suddenly, a small red seed, imbued with fire energy, flew at the Headmaster, who saw it, and quickly caught it in midair as it flew towards him. Next moment, Chinami was forced to jump aside as her own fire seed came hurtling back towards her.

The Owl Headmaster watched as the Dragon Headmaster resisted the magical strikes whilst weaving in and out of the flurry of blades. It seemed to be an even match...

"Hey, you wanna not just stand there?!" the Dragon Headmaster said. The words came out so fast that the Owl Headmaster almost didn't understand what they were.

The Dragon Headmaster grabbed MysticLove's hammer as she ignited it, and pushed back with so much force, that she slammed into SnowOwl and Koori, flooring them both. The Owl Headmaster saw Chinami take out another fire seed from her sleeves, ran up towards her and kicked the seed from her hand, sending it flying vertically upwards. The Headmaster quickly took out Chinami's legs from under her, and jumped back as the fire seed flew back to earth and squarely hit Chinami between the eyes.

The Dragon Headmaster kicked out at Domennico's legs from the side, and Domennico, too busy trying to hit the Headmaster, was caught unaware. As he fell, he grabbed Lushen with him, leaving just Bui and Zulfequar standing, as the Owl Headmaster wrestled CptTatsumiya's guns from his hands, disarming him. As the Captain took out another set of guns, the Owl Headmaster hit him with the handles of the guns which he had taken - before the Captain had a chance to reload the new ones. He then ran towards roulette, but was blinded by four golden beams - from Kimina, Ciggss, Fuchsia and Roulette herself. Dazed and collapsing to the ground, the Owl Headmaster saw Zulfequar and Gemini flying away from the Dragon Headmaster in a parabola.

The Owl Headmaster recovered, and aimed the Captain's guns towards Kimina, and pulled the trigger.

Bullets shot out of the two guns with such a high speed that they began to glow red-hot. However, due to his relative inexperience with dual guns, many of them missed. One, however, hit Kimina's hand, which made her involuntarily release her grip on her staff, which fell to the floor with a dull thud. Seizing his chance, the Headmaster ran towards Kimina and kicked the staff from underneath her outstretched hand, before elbowing her in the back, causing her to fall to the ground face first.

Bui ignited his hammer as he held it in front of him, and jumped up into the air, preparing to strike the Headmaster with an almighty fireball. Before he had the chance to cast it, however, the Headmaster hit Bui in the stomach with the palm of his hand, with enough force that he flew through the air, and landed on the ground far away from the Headmaster.

Ciggss, realising that he was the only one left standing, quickly vanished in a flash of green lightning, as the two Headmasters headed for the Pilot.

"You've been using me ever since DayBunny asked me to 'help' him!" Pypski thought reproachfully, as the Scorpion King began to reprimand her over allowing the Owl Headmaster to escape.

The Scorpion King sighed. After all, that was sort of the point. They were HIS minions, after all...

"These are just anger words... you don't mean them," the Scorpion King retaliated, using the telepathic link.

"How would YOU know? All you're interested in is world domination," retorted Pypski.

"Do you know WHY I chose you?!" the Scorpion King said, almost in a rage. "You were the best I could find, the ones most useful to me. You should feel privileged!"

"I did, until you started using me as a puppet!"

"Well, too bad for you, there's nothing you can do about it," the Scorpion King said with an evil grin. "Many people have tried to resist my influence, many have failed. What makes you think YOU will be the first?!"

"Because I've been resisting from the start, which I don't think the others have done."

"I don't see you making any progress with it," the Scorpion King sneered.

"Because I've been missing a catalyst, which you have finally provided me."

With an almighty flash of green, Pypski finally managed to force the mist out from within her body, and as it re-entered the Scorpion King's one, it felt significantly weaker...

The two Headmasters reached the Pilot of Sunset Pier.

"Quick, take us both to Mara," panted the Dragon Headmaster.

"Ooh... I'm not sure," the Pilot hesitated, glancing at the Owl Headmaster. "I don't take people from Owl School... and anyway I'm not sure if the two of you will even fit..."

"Shut up and let us board, this is a direct order!" the Dragon Headmaster roared in the Pilot's face. "What do you think I pay you for?!"

The Pilot had never recalled getting one pay cheque for her efforts, but nevertheless agreed - the Dragon Headmaster was scary when he wanted to be...

And so the two Headmasters headed for Mara, to help their other students with the situation...

Inside the Red Desert Ruins, the mysterious person laughed as he placed the finishing touches on the remote control, and tested some of its functions.

Finding out that most of them work as intended, the person laughed maliciously. The project was complete. He told the Scorpion King about this new development immediately.

Pypski had been blasted backwards, and groaned as she got up from her position in the sand. With a roar of rage, the Scorpion King immediately sent another patch of poisonous green towards her, which immediately merged with her body again.

"I told you. It is worthless to resist," the Scorpion King said. "Nobody had ever broken free from my influence before, and nobody ever will! Now, patrol this area, and look for anyone we've missed."

"It is complete," said a voice inside the Scorpion King's head.

"Excellent," was the reply. The Scorpion King chuckled malevolently. Everything was not lost, after all... it wouldn't matter if the headquarters was raided now...

It then proceeded to give his minions the following set of instructions:

"The Headmasters will be heading towards Mara," boomed a voice inside the thirteen minions's heads, as they laid in awkward positions in Sunset Pier, panting. "We will provide a suitable... reception... for them."

As it finished, it turned towards Pypski.

"Scout this area, there may be more that we've missed."

"Very well," Pypski said, grinning slightly and crossing her fingers behind her back and turned around, beginning to walk away.

With that, the Scorpion King vanished in another flash of green lightning, and Pypski saw fourteen others head towards Mara.

Pypski walked towards the Pilot of James Isle and managed to bribe her way onto the plane.

"Mara," she told the pilot. "I have a little... unfinished business with my..."

She cleared her throat.

"...EX-boss."


	17. Chapter 17

**17. Confession of an Explorer**

The mysterious person in the Red Desert Ruins looked proudly upon his creation. There was a sense of pride as he controlled its movement with his remote control. Now the Scorpion King could do what he had intended to do all this time...

He took out a drawing. It was a portrait of three people - a man, a woman and a child, smiling carefreely, forever locked in graphite on a piece of ancient paper which refused to decay...

=====================**One week ago...**======================

Sturm sat on his bed in his dormitory, aghast by what he had seen. A bolt of green lightning had emerged from the Dragon dormitories and started attacking everyone... and he didn't know whether JapansAce would survive... He gripped the edge of his bed tightly in a state of disbelief. Was that possible...? Is there a way to actually... die?

"Please. I need your help."

Sturm whirled around on his bed to find Pypski behind him.

"What do you want?" Sturm growled at her. He hadn't seen her come in, and the door was certainly locked - he had made sure of that.

"Let me tell you a story," the Scorpion King said through Pypski. "All you have to do... is listen."

Sturm looked slightly taken aback, but agreed nevertheless. If it was just one story... but it was getting late, and he was tired, as well as a little bit suspicious of this new arrival.

"A long, long time ago, not long after the founding of the two schools, there was an explorer. His skills matched no other, and he was a student in one of the schools."

"Which one?" enquired Sturm.

"That doesn't matter," the Scorpion King replied, and continued. "He liked the school very much. So much so, that he stayed on campus after he graduated. He met his wife there. They had a daughter, and the three of them lived in a house which the explorer had built on-campus, with the permission of the Headmaster.

"The parents loved the daughter very much, and the father would regularly find and bring her gifts when he returned from his missions. Every few weeks this would happen - he would be assigned a task by the Headmaster, and he left his home, promising to bring back some souvenirs.

"And he always did.

"However, you must understand that there was rivalry between the schools even back then. The explorer's family had been through their fair share as well while he was away. There were many narrow escapes, and thankfully everything was fine.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, they're both Knights, but the rivalry would only happen at night, when they were both sleeping. Many times they had been woken up by the sound of bullets and nearby flames. But, miraculously, they survived through it all.

"Then one day, everything changed...

"The explorer had been sent with the task of obtaining a secret power for his school. A power so strong that it would end all rivalry between the two schools and give its possessor power to rule over Kasmari. An archaeologist, in a meeting with the Headmaster along with the explorer, had mumbled something about a strange power - if you knew where to dig. As soon as he had left, the Headmaster gave the explorer the task of finding this power, along with a metal detector, spade, and sword, and so the explorer began his long search...

"After a long, hard week of searching, the explorer returned home. He had searched through most of Kasmari, and held a cow plushie in his hand, a present from a farmer in Neo Kansas. He had intended to give it to his daughter. He ran towards his house with a grin on his face, holding the cow plushie in one hand.

"However, there had been another fight the previous night on both schools' campuses. It was a full-on assault by both schools. The explorer's house had been set alight by a stray fireball, and in that moment, he had lost everything... his house, his possessions, and most of all, his family... The explorer collapsed onto the ground and began to sob quietly. The cow plushie fell from his hand onto the ground in front of him... it was all he physically had left to remind him of his family now...

"As you can understand, the explorer went into a huge rage. He picked up the cow plushie from the ground and placed it into his bag before confronting the Headmaster and demanding to know what had happened. The Headmaster told him... but it was no use. Although the Headmaster looked truly sorry and apologised and compensated him for his loss, he still didn't feel it was enough.

"The explorer searched Mara with all his might to find the ultimate power, but not for the school. He wanted it for himself, to avenge everyone who had played a part in the untimely death of his family, regardless of which school. In his eyes, they were all guilty...

"After a painstaking search in Mara, the explorer reached the entrance of Shadow Valley. As he battled with the Lord of Shadow Valley, a giant mummy by the name of Lele, he thought about his family. About what had happened... about how, if he finds this power, everyone would pay...

"As he raised his sword into the air, preparing to strike the final blow to Lele, a magical force suddenly flung him away from Lele, making him fall into the electric pit...

"The explorer was immediately paralysed. He couldn't do anything, and as he was overpowered by the pit, he thought he saw a glint of something white and metallic, slashing the air in front of him... but that was the moment when he fainted.

"He found himself regain consciousness on the cold floor. Lele laid in a corner, defeated. He had watched in horror as a cloaked figure's face came close to his, and, although it spoke, the explorer had felt no breath on his face.

"It offered him the most amazing prize - the prize that the explorer had been looking for. The explorer thought once again about his family, and agreed.

"The creature asked the explorer to write a book detailing his experiences, and he did so with paper in his bag, making sure to include every detail possible. He drew a picture of his family as well on the paper, for he remembered their faces well. As he gave it to the creature he saw it scribble something else at the end, before granting the explorer's wish, giving him back the drawing.

"At that moment, a Priest and Heavy Launcher suddenly appeared and attacked the explorer and the creature. The explorer recognised one of them as his own Headmaster. Both were overwhelmed. The creature's soul was sealed inside the book, henceforth lost somewhere in Kasmari. As for the poor explorer...

"His spirit was bisected and scattered across the land, hidden below two deep wells, vowing to return and avenge his family."

Pypski reached into her bag and produced a drawing. It was the same one the creature had given the Scorpion King all those years before. She handed it to Sturm, who took it. A man stared at him from the paper, his dark hair, kind smile and piercing eyes focused on Sturm. Beside him was his wife, a sweet woman who smiled with the same infectious nature as her husband. Standing in front of both of them were a girl which must have been their daughter, she had looked cute, or at least that was the way she was portrayed. Sturm stared at her, then back at Pypski.

"That day... seven years ago... when that person with the large gun looked into one of the wells in which I was imprisoned... I couldn't believe it. He hadn't been deterred by the ominous glow erupting from it. I seized my chance. Thanks to him I was able to fuse my spirit back together.

"The picture is the same one I drew all those years ago. I have not told this story to anyone. Not even to the people which I possess. You are the first.

"So... now that you know... will you help me?"

"Help you?" Sturm asked, curious.

"Yes... for years now my goal has changed. It is not just about revenge... but restoration. I want back what was taken from me. I want to find a way to be with my family again... that's why I haven't been actually killing people... that's why I'm only possessing them... and why I'm making them possess as many others as possible..."

"But if you just asked everyone..."

"They wouldn't understand. And even if they did, the Headmaster would refuse. They are the direct descendants of the Headmaster all those years ago. He would have passed my story down the generations. If I was to show myself to them, they would rally against me in an instant.

"This rivalry needs to end... there must be a way to regain what I have lost... there must be a way to make those responsible pay for their actions..."

Sturm stared at the picture again, lost in thought, until finally, after what felt like a long time...

"Why me?" Sturm asked.

"It could have been anyone," replied the Scorpion King through Pypski, as it recalled what it had said to her for the first time in the house in Neo Kansas, some hours ago, using the telepathic link, while it was still possessing DayBunny...

"Help me..."

Sturm was lost in thought again.

"What do I need to do?" asked Sturm.

"Even though I have told you what I plan to do, you still wish to help?"

Sturm hesitated for a second.

"Yes."

"Very well. When the time comes, I will give you a signal," the Scorpion King said. "Oh, and...

"Thank you."

A flash of green, and Sturm was left alone in his dormitory again, clutching the portrait.

====================**Several hours ago...**====================

Sturm ran with the others, escaping from bolts of green lightning attempting to strike them.

"The time is now," said a voice in the back of his head. "The Headmasters are coming. It must be now. My minions will not attack you. Head to the headquarters. You will find everything there. Be careful, they may attack it at any time."

Sturm pretended to stumble, and fell to the back of the group. He then veered off to one side, heading for the Red Desert Ruins.

He arrived in the main chamber and found a lot of metal parts, as well as the mysterious book which was the explorer's memoirs. He began to work on the metal components, following a set of blueprints on the floor near the giant heap of scrap parts...

The two Headmasters flew over Mara in their plane, and saw the Knight Shelter's landing pad ahead.

"Well, here we go," the Dragon Headmaster said.

The pilot touched down and the Headmasters stood up to disembark. The force of the propellers generated a small localised sandstorm as they landed, which, had anything been caught in it, would have been blown away except for the bulkiest of Crashers, and some Skalari. There were no doors on the window, and as the two Headmasters turned away from the ones beside their seats, a flash of green illuminated the plane's interior, but were unseen by both Headmasters, who were focusing on opening the door. As they emerged, the Pilot screamed out loud.

The two Headmasters were greeted by dark silhouettes with an ominous glow, which surrounded the launchpad entirely.

"Yeah... here we go," the Owl Headmaster finally responded.

"Let's do this..." the Dragon Headmaster said, readying his fists.

"Agreed," replied the Owl Headmaster, as a golden beam shot towards them both...

The Scorpion King looked on from an island in the middle of the oasis, upon which a huge structure stood, chained to the ground...

"The Wraith Lord must be summoned once more..." it thought. "This is the only way all of my goals will be achieved..."

Unification, restoration, vengeance...


	18. Chapter 18

**18. Interception**

Magics, Cristina, Kilai, StrangerD3RK, Birou, Youki, Spycer, Confucius, Hatake, Sahara, Rhainbow, Yuumei, Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii, MaximusArk, Focusman and Mirabella were, somehow, still running. There were still many minions on their tail, and they were nearing the Knight Shelter. They saw the landing pad for the helicopter and the two Headmasters upon it, battling with more minions.

"How many more are there?!" Magics gasped.

"I have no idea," Hatake replied. "I would keep running if I were you though!"

A lightning bolt narrowly missed Magics, who began to sprint again.

"Don't you think we should help them?" Yuumei panted, blindly tossing a small red seed behind her, which missed everything.

"We have our own problems right now!" Birou yelled, as she shot a golden beam towards the sky in the hope of hitting the source of a lightning bolt, but missing.

"Let's focus on surviving first," Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii replied, healing a burn which was the result of a lightning bolt which struck a bit too close for comfort.

The group rushed past the entrance to the Red Desert Ruins. Unseen by them, Sturm watched them from inside. Didn't they know the torture they were causing? Didn't they stop and think about why the Scorpion King might be doing this? Didn't they understand at all...?

He retreated back into the cave, sneaking past the guarding Skalari as he went, shaking his head. He wouldn't try to convince them. The Scorpion King only wanted the fighting to end... he had heard it himself... "Unification, restoration, vengeance"...

It was hopeless. The Headmasters were blinded by golden beams from all sides, so much so that they couldn't move a muscle. The Scorpion King looked on from atop the large structure in his sanctuary in the oasis. This is it... he was about to get rid of his ultimate enemies... it was their fault... all their fault... they didn't stop the attacks on the schools... they didn't stop his family dying... it had been within their power, yet they did nothing...

Another plane suddenly flew over the Scorpion King's head. The roaring sound made by the engine attracted the attention of the Headmasters.

"Quick, jump off the launchpad!" the Dragon Headmaster shouted urgently.

His Owl counterpart didn't need telling twice. He limboed another golden beam and leapt into the air, kicking the nearest silhouette as he landed on it, and the two of them tumbled off the platform, as the plane approached closer from above, preparing to land. He could feel the wind caused by its propellers getting stronger and stronger. If the Dragon Headmaster didn't move soon, he was going to be blown away...

The plane was now only ten metres at most above the Dragon Headmaster's head, and still descending fast. The pilot couldn't see anything directly below, that was certain. Thinking quickly, the Dragon Headmaster rolled forwards, and, in an action not unlike a bowling ball, struck several of the Scorpion King's minions. As they tumbled off the launch pad, the Dragon Headmaster got to his feet, resulting on him standing on top of several minions at once.

Just in time.

The wind had reached breaking point, and the sand was sweeped up in a mini sandstorm, which blinded the minions, causing them to retreat. The Scorpion King snarled in rage. So close... it had been SO close... yet this newcomer has wrecked it all...

Several flashes of green, and the next moment, everything was gone, except for the two Headmasters, clinging on to a support beam of the launchpad to prevent themselves from being launched into the air by the mini storm.

Pypski stepped out of the plane and looked around.

"That's weird," she said, "I could have sworn there was fighting here earlier..."

The Scorpion King snarled as he saw the person who shattered his plan. Her again! He liked it far, far better when she was under his control, but now he couldn't even attempt to possess her - every time he tried, his presence would be forced out immediately. He thundered towards Pypski as a jet of pure green...

Pypski screamed as she was struck square on by the bolt of lightning. She seemed to freeze for a few seconds, then, as the energy exploded as a tremendous shockwave, was flung backwards. The two Headmasters, still clinging on to the support beams, saw her flying away into the distance.

"What do we do now?" the Dragon Headmaster asked.

"Shouldn't you check if your student is OK?" the Owl Headmaster enquired.

"Nah, she'll be fine, that would've only tickled her, if I know Pypski."

"Well, OK, if you say so... let's have a look around and hope nothing comes back. We might discover where they're hiding."

"Agreed. Let's stick together, you can be pretty damn sure the Scorpion King's minions will be doing the same."

"Agreed."

The two Headmasters began to search Mara for clues as to where the hideout may be. Meanwhile, a third plane flew over their heads, heading for the launchpad...

The mini sandstorm sparked to life again as the Headmasters set off in the direction of the Forsaken Temple.

Several people emerged from the slightly larger plane, which had landed beside the previous, smaller one. Having survived the Scorpion King's attack on the Dragon dormitory, their silhouettes were visible through the dim light of the sky.

"Should we wait here?" said a girl's voice.

"Dunno... I can't see anything happening..." said another voice, this time a boy's. He had raised his guns when they got off the plane, but lowered them now.

"Let's at least hide and see what happens," said a third voice, different from the second. He, too, had raised his guns, but like his predecessor had restored them to their original locations.

"Hey, I wonder where the others got to? They were meant to come with us," said the first voice.

"No idea, we should hide somewhere and wait for them. The four of us can't do much right now. Bliss is with them, without her we're as good as dead against the minions."

"Yeah, you're right," the fourth voice said, shouldering the gun it was carrying. "We need someone to watch our backs."

"Seriously, this is getting ridiculous," Youki was heard to say. "How many laps is this now?!"

"I dunno," said Birou, who had lost count a few hours ago, shooting another golden beam towards the sky in vain.

"We can't keep this up much longer," Magics said. "We need to stop eventually-"

"We should have stopped five hours ago," growled StrangerD3RK, "but they won't give up!" She shot another four jets of ice behind her, but missed, while Rhainbow dodged another flash of white hurled towards her.

"I agree, this is getting ridiculous, but we can't go into one of those portals, it seals off automatically once five of us enter, and now isn't the time to split up," Hatake said.

"I think I noticed something near the Knight Shelter, but I'm not sure exactly where it is," Yuumei said.

"Well, what other lead do we have?" Focusman replied reluctantly, casting a blue shield around himself. "Our vehicles have ran out of fuel and we can't exactly keep this up all day..."

"Yeah, I agree," Magics said. "Lead the way, Yuu."

As the group ran back towards the Knight Shelter, Sturm stepped out from the shadows of the ruins of the destroyed civilisation.

======================================================

Pypski picked herself back up, she had been knocked into a sand dune. As she emerged from the Pypski-shaped tunnel she had made, she looked around, but nobody was to be found. Either they were hiding or were under the Scorpion King's control, she deduced.

Glancing by chance towards the Red Desert Ruins, she saw flashes of gold, yellow and green, and Sturm standing at a distance.

"Oh no..."

She ran towards them as fast as she could. Closer... closer... they were almost within earshot...

"Guys, it's a tr-"

All attention were now fixed onto her. Suddenly, a bright green burst seemed to radiate from Pypski - she had been struck by no less than six different bolts of lightning simultaneously.

"Ouch..." Yuumei said, as Pypski fell unconscious on the sand, while around her flashes of spells kept being triggered.

"Do you think she'll be OK?" Hatake asked, worried.

"She'll be fine."

Sturm decided to reveal himself. The minions pretended to hit him, but Sturm also pretended to dodge them at the same time.

"Follow me, I know where you'll be safe."

======================================================

"Now?" said the first mysterious voice, from behind a tree.

"Not yet, we need to wait for them to go inside, then intercept the minions," the second voice said from above the first.

"When the heck are the others going to get here?!" The third silhouette's head emerged from a nearby sand dune.

"When they've finished preparing everything. Do you know how difficult it is to mentally prepare for those spells that the Magic Circle uses? Takes a lot of willpower, they do!"

"Yeah but I still don't get why Natsu and Usui had to stay WITH them..."

The second speaker sighed.

"Just in case something goes wrong on the way here, Natsu and Usui are watching their backs. But if things get desperate we can't afford to wait for them much longer..."

The four hidden people saw the others follow Sturm inside.

"OK, this is it, we have to do this now, if the minions follow them inside it'll take too much of their energy, they can't fight the monsters in there with the minions at the same time."

"But-!"

"Sorry we're late!" yelled a voice in the direction of Neo Kansas.

"Yeah, we got caught up slightly-" a boy's voice said. It was cut short abruptly by the sound of a slap.

"We promised never to mention that again, Usui!"

Usui winced, although this was invisible to everyone except his attacker.

"Jeez, Natsu, I wasn't going to actually SAY it, after all, everyone there knew it was an accident..."

"Yeah, but THEY don't!" the silhouette which had slapped the first gestured towards the first four, as three more ran past them.

"Guys! We have to do this NOW!" the first voice said, as five more silhouettes ran up to them, Usui and Natsuki among them.

"Yes, you're right, Rooz," said the second voice, as he raised his guns again. "Ready, Ag?"

"Ready, Ducky," AgSilver replied, also raising his guns. "You three OK with your spells?"

As the three Magic Circle students all voiced assent, the silhouette with the gun shouldered on its back also emerged.

"Looks like we're all set," BlissBunny said, looking towards the silhouette with the gun.

The nine silhouettes ran towards the minions outside Red Desert Ruins, and began to attack.

======================================================

The Headmasters emerged from the Forsaken Temple empty-handed, and glanced around the deserted desert, looking for the next place to search.

"Hey, what's that?" the Owl Headmaster said, spotting flashes in the distance - the silhouettes fighting with the minions.

"Oh, dammit! We have to go!" the Dragon Headmaster shouted. "We have to help!"

The two Headmasters began to run towards the Knight Shelter, through the monsters as if they didn't exist. As they ran past the giant obelisk, it was struck by a flash of green.

"Where do you think YOU'RE going?!" thundered a voice, as a green jet of lightning narrowly missed the pair.

"Oh crap!" the Dragon Headmaster said.

"Don't worry, we've taken him down once, we can do it again!"

The Scorpion King chuckled, an evil, ominous chuckle which escalated into a huge thundering roar, and began to attack the Headmasters, while, outside the Red Desert Ruins, the nine silhouettes battled against some other minions of the Scorpion King. Inside the ruins, the people who had been chased around Mara for the best part of five hours had, apparently, finally and unknowingly, reached what they had been looking for, with Sturm leading the way...

...but is it to their victory... or demise...?


	19. Chapter 19

**19. Deceit**

As the battle raged outside the Red Desert Ruins, the people inside busied with clearing the monsters. Sturm chuckled to himself - it was all going to plan... at least for now.

"Hey, Sturm, any idea where this leads to?" Magics enquired.

"Yeah, an ancient primitive civilisation used to live here, although judging by the looks of things it might not have been that primitive," Sturm replied, parrying an attack with his staff.

"Any idea what's at the end?" Cristina asked, as an attack from a Skalari slammed into the shield placed around her by Kilai.

"Nope, none at all," Sturm lied. "Your guess is as good as mine."

The group fought onwards through the monsters in the darkening cave, no idea what Sturm had in plan for them, and about his involvement in all of this...

======================================================

The two Headmasters dodged furiously as the Scorpion King sat in the middle of the oasis, attempting to shoot them with lightning bolts, sneaking glances towards the entrance when they dared. It was all good, so far only one person had been defeated by the minions, according to what the Dragon Headmaster saw. Nine other people were still fighting the Scorpion King's minions, one of whom was shooting off healing spells left, right and centre whilst dodging green streaks.

"Focus!" shouted a voice close to him, and the Dragon Headmaster was suddenly pushed aside, moments before a green lightning bolt struck him. He turned towards the direction of the voice and found the Owl Headmaster some distance away - he had pushed the Dragon Headmaster away from the lightning bolt, while at the same time had jumped backwards himself to avoid it, using his arms as a makeshift spring.

"Thanks, that was close," the Dragon Headmaster replied, and both of them began to attempt to get closer to the Scorpion King again.

Four streaks of lightning broke off from the rest and into the ruins...

Inside the cave, beyond the flashes of green, white, pink and gold, Sturm led the others through a complex maze system of tunnels. As they headed deeper, fighting Skalari along the way, they could hear some sort of rumbling, which increased in volume the deeper they travelled. None of them had brought a light source, and pretty soon the cave was swallowed in total darkness. The only light was a green glow which seemed to come from behind them.

"Hey, you didn't tell us that the Skalari here were bioluminescent," Magics said.

"I didn't know," Sturm replied, surprised. "I thought they weren't."

"Can Skalari evolve?" Mirabella asked, curious.

"Dunno," Youki replied, but by the looks of things they could.

The group travelled deeper into the cave, with the glowing getting stronger the further they went.

"There's something strange..." Spycer said, stopping in her tracks. She had just killed a Skalari, but the light didn't seem to be dimming.

"About what?" Sturm replied, playing dumb, looking at his watch to check the time in the process.

"The sources of light," answered Spycer. "It doesn't seem to be coming from the Skalari at all."

Which was, of course, true.

"Hey, now that you mention it, the Skalari don't look as if they're glowing," Birou observed, as they reached the final chamber, the rumbling still present.

They entered the final chamber, crawling with Skalari everywhere. Sturm stopped at the entrance, and so did everyone else. He looked at the watch again, and stopped in his tracks. The game was up, and so was the time.

"Wait here," Sturm said, and headed out by himself into the chamber.

"Wait, Sturm-" Sahara yelled out, but too late. Sturm had already disappeared into the mass of Skalari.

"What now?" Confucius asked. Sturm had vanished without a trace, and the rumbling noise was getting louder.

"I hope he's OK..." Sahara looked concerned.

The noise had grown even louder, but there was no time to worry about that, not when Sturm was missing...

The ground in the middle of the chamber suddenly erupted, a burst of green mist enveloped the whole room. A massive silhouette appeared to rise from the middle of the green mess.

"No way..." Birou said, astounded.

"That traitor, he walked out on us just before we get attacked!" Youki shouted angrily.

"Here we go..." Magics prepared himself. Behind him, Kilai and Cristina began to cast protective enchantments.

Suddenly, a voice shrieked. Sahara had turned around.

Behind them floated four green spheres in midair, barely visible in the green mist - the source of the mysterious light. As they watched, one of them streaked towards them - a flash of green - and by sheer luck missed Focusman and Hatake by an inch. The other three followed, and struck beside the large figure still enveloped by the mist.

DayBunny, JapansAce, Viewtifulboi and Lushen stood in the middle of the room, their glow, the only source of light now, making them look like dark silhouettes in the cave.

Not for long.

Two flashes of white - Birou and Youki's bullets, illuminated the chamber towards DayBunny, and for a moment the monstrosity was revealed.

"When did THAT get here?!" Magics exclaimed, as the figure was once again hidden in the mist.

"Snap out of it, Magics!" Mirabella retorted. Now wasn't time time to make silly comments.

Magics snapped back to his senses and cast a blue protective shield around himself, while Hatake and Spycer readied their claws, aware of everything around them.

"It'll be really hard to see anything through this!" Cristina shouted, casting a purple shield around everyone she could aim at, while Kilai did the same.

"Use the Skalari as shields against their attacks," Magics said. "Focus, Sahara and I will find some way of getting rid of this mist."

"Right," Birou replied. The next second, she had been pushed down by her father, who had dived for her, as a green streak shot over both of their heads.

"GO!" Magics yelled furiously.

"For the Momos...!" StrangerD3RK was heard to scream, before everything surrendered to chaos.

The mist had spread throughout the entire cave in minutes. The Headmasters, still in battle with the Scorpion King in its oasis, turned around quickly to see green mist emerging from the entrance of the Red Desert Ruins in the distance.

The Scorpion King seized this chance and struck both Headmasters full on with a lightning bolt. The Owl Headmaster was forced clean through a tree, taking a section of the trunk with him. The Dragon Headmaster was blasted into the general store.

"What's going on, sir?!" screamed the Shopkeeper, as the Dragon Headmaster got up again.

"Get everyone out of here, this is an emergency," the Dragon Headmaster replied, to which the Shopkeeper agreed, and ran outside to warn the others.

As the Headmaster emerged from the back of the store, he heard a woman's scream in the distance and saw a flash of green.

"Crap..." he thought to himself. The Scorpion King was serious on not taking any prisoners...

"Hey, are you OK?" the Owl Headmaster yelled from near a sand dune.

"Speak for yourself, that tree will never be the same again!" the Dragon one called back, as a flash of green shot behind him.

The Owl Headmaster couldn't help but suppress a chuckle. He saw, behind the Dragon Headmaster, the battle still raging outside the entrance to the ruins. Both of their students have come so far... it was kind of tragic that they were now forced to fight amongst themselves...

A lightning bolt from the Scorpion King restored the Owl Headmaster back to his senses. He quickly scrambled to his feet, just as the Dragon Headmaster also reached him.

"Come on, if our ancestors could do it, then so can we," the Owl Headmaster said, looking at the Scorpion King.

"Let's do this," the Dragon Headmaster said solemnly, as both rushed back towards the oasis.

"A little faster, if you don't mind!" Hatake shouted to Magics, Focusman and Sahara, who were trying to get rid of the mist enveloping the whole cave while dodging attacks from the Skalari, the Scorpion King's minions, as well as the mysterious thing which had appeared from the ground. His claws were parrying the arms of the Skalari he was in combat with, as a lightning bolt shot towards him from Lushen. At the last second, his reflexes allowed him to dodge the bolt completely, which proceeded to strike the Skalari he was in combat with.

"We're trying!" Sahara yelled back, her spell momentarily interrupted and she was forced to block an incoming attack from a Skalari with her staff, while at the same time dodging another jet of green lightning, which blew up her attacker. "Dammit!"

Spycer was in direct combat with DayBunny, Confucius healing her, while Birou and Youki tried to take down Lushen with support from Kilai and Cristina. Hatake acted as a decoy by directing Skalaris into the minions' attacks, and StrangerD3RK was focused on the giant thing in the middle, dodging bullets, lightning and everything else the monster threw at her, supported by Yuumei, Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii and Mirabella.

"It's metal, my whip doesn't work..!" she shouted desperately, as a lightning bolt struck her, which was immediately healed by Mirabella.

"We could probably heat it up if we used flame attacks on it!" Yuumei shouted, as she tossed a small, red seed towards the monster at the same time as Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii hurled a fireball. StrangerD3RK also leaped into the air, dodging a stream of bullets, and shot a fireball, which bounced on the floor once before striking the monster.

"We're running out of Skalari shields, hurry up, you three!" Youki shouted, briefly illuminating half the chamber again with a flash of white bullets from his gun. He leaped backwards, throwing several grenades towards Lushen, dazing him for several seconds as he lunged blindly for Birou and Youki himself. Birou then leaped into the air and rained bullets down onto Lushen, but it was too late, adrenaline already surged through Lushen's body and he began to attack Birou ferociously. Youki aimed carefully at his head whilst Birou dodged and parried attack after attack with her guns at a frequency of less than half a second.

Unfortunately, Lushen had already spotted Youki's strategy...

Almost as if in slow motion, Youki fired his gun, and the bullet travelled directly at Lushen's head, Lushen turned in a circle around Birou, so that Youki, his bullet, Lushen himself and his target Birou were arranged in a perfectly straight line. Lushen then, in the blink of an eye, transformed into a lightning bolt as Birou parried another of his attacks, and struck Birou, moments before Youki's bullet would have made contact with his head. In doing so, Lushen also ensured that Youki's bullet struck Birou instead, causing her to stagger as the bullet made impact. A flash of green lightning emerged from Birou and whizzed into the distance, towards Spycer and Confucius, while Birou herself collapsed onto the floor.


	20. Chapter 20

**20. Exposed**

Youki swore underneath his breath and quickly ran to his daughter's aid. He took out a red potion for her, which she drank. Yuumei and Mirabella hurried over and cast a shield around them both, giving Birou time to recover. The two were led off to the Elementalists in the green gloom by Mirabella, while Yuumei went back to helping Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii and StrangerD3RK.

"Some time this century will be nice!" StrangerD3RK yelled, still dodging a rogue lightning bolt that was JapansAce, as well as bullets from the monster. Yuumei and Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii were supporting her, making sure they weren't struck as well.

Confucius and Spycer were still fighting DayBunny - the powers that the Scorpion King had given him meant that he was equal to them both. Lushen quickly joined the battle and attacked Confucius immediately. Spycer quickly attacked Lushen, but DayBunny seized this chance and stopped her with a lightning blast from his gun.

"We've almost got it," Magics told Mirabella. "Go help Spycer and Confucious, Mira. Tell Cris and Kilai to help too, the Skalari isn't that much of a threat any more."

"Hey, they were meant to be supporting us!" Youki protested. "Where did they go?!"

"They got attacked by some Skalari, it wasn't their fault," Magics said. "Go, Mira!"

"Got it," Mirabella replied, and went to fetch Kilai and Cristina, still in combat with the few remaining Skalari. Hatake was close by, helping them.

"Rhain, it's nearly finished. Get ready," Sahara told her. Rhainbow had stayed with the Elementalists as their healer. She nodded, threw another healing spell towards Birou, and cast shields over everyone, moments before a rogue bullet glanced off Focusman.

The three Elementalists muttered a spell in unison.

Time itself seemed to stop...

The sound of a single heartbeat.

A white shield erupted around the four people in the corner of the cavern, eliminating the mist within into nothingness.

The next second...

The shield exploded with an immense shockwave, which quickly spread throughout the Red Desert Ruins and beyond, clearing the mist from the vicinity. Two lightning bolts, whizzing around the cave, were revealed to be Viewtifulboi and JapansAce, who fell to the floor with a thud. Spycer and Confucius seized this chance to knock Lushen and DayBunny unconscious.

Outside, everyone turned their focus towards the shockwave emerging from the Red Desert Ruins. The Scorpion King noticed it too, and began his attack with renewed vigour, as the battle resumed once again.

Inside the ruins, and before they could do anything, the four minions were immediately enclosed in a forcefield. It was all they could do to attempt to strike the forcefield until it broke, but as the green bolts whizzed around, damaging the forcefield, the Magic Circle would quickly re-strengthen it before it was completely broken.

"What the heck IS that?!" shouted a shocked voice.

The shockwave had also illuminated the mysterious monster.

"Hold on a second," Magics said the obvious truth. "That's not..."

It wasn't what anyone had expected.

It was a huge robot scorpion...

...made to look like the Scorpion King.

As everyone watched, it spewed another barrage of bullets towards StrangerD3RK, who was forced to deflect them with Yuumei's magic shield, and immediately fired another fireball towards it.

Magics, watching StrangerD3RK, Yuumei and Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii trying to burn the robot, facepalmed in frustration. None of them had the more effective water spells, which was why the monster wasn't seem to be damaged significantly - the only real damage seemed to be coming from the seed that Yuumei threw, which exploded on contact and burned anything it came into contact with, and ice shots from StrangerD3RK. and that was nowhere near enough.

"Wait here, I'll go help."

"Me too," said Rhainbow, and rushed after him, while behind her, Youki started pacing in circles, lost in thought again.

"Be careful, you two," Focusman yelled after them, casting another shield around himself.

Pypski stirred as a lightning bolt struck close to her. She awoke to find Natsuki, Usui, and several of the others in combat with the Scorpion King's minions. Without a second thought she ran headfirst into the fray, and beyond that, approaching the ruins.

The Scorpion King noticed this, and was enraged. It HAD to be her. He felt no viable connection towards her any more. The telepathic link had also been broken between itself and Pypski. In a rage, he transformed into the lightning bolt and shot directly at Pypski, narrowly missing her and striking the entrance of the cavern, causing the mouth of the cave to collapse, blocking off the entrance and sealing Pypski, as well as the others inside, in complete darkness, as the Headmasters, seizing their chance, ran after the Scorpion King in pursuit.

Pypski felt something strike with immense force behind her and turned around - to be faced with a wall of rock. She muttered under her breath and, given no other choice, had to proceed forwards. The battle outside seemed to be intensifying now that the Scorpion King had joined the battle, yet she knew that it was just a decoy. She knew that it was only using this chance to possess as many of them as he could. The real battle was inside the lair...

She groped around the cave in the near total darkness, the only source of light the glow from her armour, magically enchanted by the craftsmen at her school calling themselves Mechers. She recalled how she'd love to kill them someday - that had been everyone's wish - but now that the Scorpion King had actually killed Melanie a while ago, she wasn't so sure about it any more.

Onwards into the darkness, guided only by her memory. She was entering another world, the ancient ruins of the civilisation before theirs had much to offer, but she was too busy worrying to care. Past ancient relics disturbed by the recent battles, past drawings on walls without seeing them...

After what seemed like an age, she heard distant noises in front of them. Flashes of red, gold and white ricocheted off the walls and into her eyes, which also lit the path for her. Feeling slightly relieved, she let go of the wall and walked onwards, steadying her hammer as she went.

Those events seven years ago seemed a distant memory... yet who knew how significant they were at the time...? If DayBunny hadn't poked his head in that well, then maybe she would still be challenging Owl School students to Marble Battles, maybe she would still be with her club, passing the time with pyramid raids...

She emerged into the central chamber and immediately spotted DayBunny in a forcefield, attempting to shoot it open. She immediately dashed towards him, but-

Something hit her with extreme force and immedlately exploded, engulfing her in flames.

"What- no, what're you doing?!" she said, horrified.

"It's Pypski! She's still possessed! Trap her, too!"

"Oh, that's right... they didn't know about it yet..." Pypski thought to herself, before proceeding to explain.

"How do we know that's not the Scorpion King talking through your mouth?!" retorted Magics angrily, turning around and running away from the battle, the better to confront her. "How do we know what you're saying is true?!"

"Calm down, Magics," Confucius said quietly, from a safe spot in a corner. "We can keep her on watch in case anything else comes."

Magics growled, but saw no flaw with this plan.

"Fine... Spy, Confucius, you two are in charge of guarding her. If she makes any suspicious moves, detain her."

"What- but-" Pypski tried to protest, but Confucius and Spycer approached her.

"This is the best he can do right now, given the circumstances. If he wasn't so preoccupied I'm sure he wouldn't have hesitated in killing you on the spot, or tried to," Spycer told her, glancing back towards Magics, who had rejoined the battle beside StrangerD3RK, Yuumei, Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii and Rhainbow. She looked slightly apologetic and by her expression Pypski can tell that she believed her story. Faced with no choice, Pypski was marched outside of the chamber, patrolling the dungeon with Spycer and Confucius, vanishing into the darkness, illuminated by the help of Confucius's shield. Not long afterwards, the pink dot also vanished.

Yuumei threw another seed towards the robot scorpion, which exploded on impact and engulfed it in a burst of flame.

"If we keep this up it might melt eventually!" Yuumei shouted encouragingly, as a fireball whizzed past her from Uiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

Magics soon gave up trying to use ice attacks to freeze the machine. It would just be counteracting the effects of the flame. Instead, he placed his hands together, made a strange symbol, and a shockwave traveled out in a straight line towards the robot. The Disruption Field had worked. The monster found itself unable to shoot more bullets - the weaponry circuit had been scrambled. StrangerD3RK seized her chance and shot a jet of electricity towards it, short-circuiting the robot and bursting a hatch open. Everyone else approached it except the other Elementalists, who were still restraining DayBunny, JapansAce, Lushen and Viewtifulboi.

"Good work, let's see who made this thing!" Magics encouraged.

Cristina suddenly saw something on the chassis of the monster, and headed towards it. She managed to prise the hatch open with her staff, discovering a black book inside, which she took.

Spycer, Confucius and Pypski were walking along the dark corridor, the path illuminated by Confucius's pink shield. The Skalaris had been eliminated in the attack by the others.

"There's no use, the exit was blocked off," Pypski told Confucius. "We can't get out of we tried."

"There's no harm in checking, right?" Spycer convinced her. After all, they were in a group, one or two minions might be manageable...

At that moment, a tremendous bang echoed through the cavern - the blockade at the entrance had been broken by a bolt of lightning. The battle outside was not going well, Usui and Natsu both lay injured on the ground, and Alyse had been hurled into a sand dune. AgSilver and Hideki had been captured by the minions and about to be possessed, BlissBunny was still trying to heal her friends, but was constantly forced to interrupt her spells, Tamani and Kalysto in a similar situation, while Roozaey's attacks had proven useless against the rapid flashing lightning bolts, and laid on the floor in a heap after being electrocuted by one of them. The two Headmasters had accidentally stood in front of the blockade as the Scorpion King prepared to target them, and as a result the lightning bolt had completely collapsed the boulders blocking the entrance, revealing the tunnel.

Almost instantly, the tunnel was illuminated by flashes of green rushing inside. AgSilver and Hideki had been spared - just - and the Headmasters were now trying to treat everyone.

"What do we do? There must still be people in there..." the Owl Headmaster said, concerned.

"We can't do anything yet..." sighed the Dragon Headmaster. "We have to get these people to safety first."

"But what about the others?" the Owl Headmaster demanded.

"I know it's hard... but would you rather sacrifice half your students, or all of them?" the Dragon Headmaster asked solemnly.

The Owl Headmaster gasped in horror at the idea, but deep down he knew that his Dragon counterpart was right. Even though it wasn't the Owl Headmaster's decision to make, he knew what he had to do if it had been...

"Get out your School Return Card. Get your students to the hospital, then meet me in your office," the Owl Headmaster made up his mind.

The Dragon Headmaster nodded, took out a small, silver card, and vanished with his students. Moments later, the Owl Headmaster also disappeared, leaving a scene of devastation.

The body of the Shopkeeper still laid near the oasis of the Knight Shelter.

Pypski, Confucious and Spycer, still inside the tunnel, heard the collapse of the barrier.

"What the..." Pypski gasped.

"What happened?!" demanded Spycer, turning to Pypski.

"I have no idea!" Pypski replied, horrified. "I honestly have no idea!"

"What's that?!" shouted Confucius, pointing forwards.

Amongst the pink sheen of the shield, there was something else... a dim green glow, which seemed to increase in intensity very rapidly.

"Oh no... they're coming..." Pypski said. It looks like the Scorpion King won the battle outside. "We need to go. Now!"

The three of them turned tail and ran back towards the chamber to tell the others, behind them, the green glow intensified, stronger and stronger...

The robot scorpion's hatch opened to StrangerD3RK's electric shot, and someone emerged, to gasps from everyone in the room.

"Sturm!"

"It was YOU!?"

"I knew it!" Magics shouted. "Nobody deserts their friends just before they get attacked like that!"

Sturm laughed, but not his usual light-hearted one.

"Looks like I got found out. I'll admit it. I've been working with the Scorpion King since the day we first saw the green lightning phenomenon. He told me his story. All of it. I know why he's doing this, I know his background story. I know his ultimate aims. I know EVERYTHING there is to know, because he told me... did you realise he had a wife and daughter? Did you realise that they were killed in a crossfire between the two schools centuries ago? Did you realise the reason he did this was to avenge his family? No, you did not! I only did what I felt was right, I only helped those who I thought deserved my help whilst avoiding detection, and I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling Knights!"

At that moment, Pypski, Confucius and Spycer rushed back into the main chamber.

"Whoa... Sturm?! It was YOU!?" Spycer said, completely shocked, while Pypski and Confucius, along with everyone else in the room, looked flabbergasted.

"What made you three come back?" Magics demanded. He still wasn't too pleased to see Pypski.

"They're coming," Spycer said simply.

"We saw it. A green glow. The entrance was caved in, but it's been reopened again. They couldn't hold them back. The Scorpion King is coming!" Pypski said, alarmed.

"Whoa, whoa, who are 'they'?" Hatake enquired.

"The people who survived the Scorpion King's attack on the Dragon dormitory..." Pypski whispered. "Didn't you wonder why no minions followed you inside except for four?"

Suddenly, the truth hit everyone. The others must have hidden behind them and intercepted the minions, but they got more than what they had bargained for...

"We've got no time to lose! HE'S COMING!" Pypski almost screamed, as Cristina emerged from behind the monster with the book in her hand, partially concealed up her sleeve.

"If they get in here they'll destroy this hideout because we've found it!"

Sturm spotted this book and let out another evil laugh.

"You think the Scorpion King is going to stop there? You think that's the peak of his power? You haven't seen ANYTHING yet!"

"Someone lock that guy in a forcefield!" shouted Magics. "I can't bear his laugh any more..."

The green glow was now visible from the main chamber, its intensity growing...

"'You're too late! The Scorpion King will reward me greatly for carrying out his plan!"

The first of the green jets of lightning whizzed into the main corridor and struck Sturm square in the chest, blasting him backwards against the back wall. He slid to the ground, knocked out, a thin trail of blood, barely visible, was left on the wall from where his head had struck it.

"WE HAVE TO GO!" shrieked Sahara.

"Take him with us, we need to question him!" Youki pointed to Sturm, and as he held onto Birou, Kilai walked over and took hold of the unconscious Sturm.

As everyone took out a silver card marked "School Return", more and more lightning bolts began to whiz around the room. The Magic Circle students quickly shielded anyone and everyone, and the room was full of ricocheting green lightning beams, absurdly reminiscent of a laser light show. One of the beams hit the robot scorpion, completely shattering it, and its parts joined the ricocheting green lightning bolts. Magics's last glimpse of the chaotic room was a plethora of metal parts and green lightning bolts, as well as slabs of rock from the ceiling tumbling down amidst the fray. He saw the barriers restricting Lushen, Viewtifulboi, DayBunny and JapansAce disintegrate, and the four joining the chaos, before everything flashed to pitch black.

Back at Owl School, Magics told everyone to take the injured to the Nurse for treatment, while at the Dragon campus Pypski told everyone to do the same. The Headmasters had congregated in the Dragon Headmaster's office and were discussing the recent battle and what they had seen, but were still oblivious to what had happened inside the ruins.

"Bring Sturm to the Headmaster's office, I want to question him there," Magics said.

StrangerD3RK agreed, and walked over to Kilai, who handed Sturm to her, still unconscious. Sturm, StrangerD3RK and Magics disappeared into the main building.

Cristina separated herself from everyone else. She looked at the salvaged book in her hand. She wondered why it had been kept in the monster as it was... was it there on purpose? What would a book be doing in a closed compartment of a metal monster? Did someone WANTED them to find it?

She sat herself beneath the cherry blossom tree, and propped the book on her lap, contemplating whether to read it or not...

...

Deciding that it wouldn't hurt to open it at the very least, she opened the book at page one, and saw that it was handwritten. The handwriting style wasn't something she had seen before. Someone else had written this some time ago. In fact, she felt that this book was written a VERY long time ago. How did they get access to a modern book...?

Well, she thought, since she had opened it, she might as well continue... there was no point to opening a book if you're not going to at least read what it says...

She took a deep breath, and began to read...

...if only she hadn't...

...if only she had left it alone...

...for this would be a decision she would most certainly regret.


	21. Chapter 21

**21. The Lost Memoir**

Chapter 0 - Prologue

I have lost everything. Yet I have won.

The secret power... after so long...

Do I deserve such power...?

Just kidding, OF COURSE I DO! After hours of fruitful searching, after everything that has happened, who's to say that I don't?!

But nevertheless, I shall start from the very beginning...

Even though I was told to write this, this is a story that must be told.

The story which will reach a thousand souls for what it's worth, and to make them realise... that all is not lost, no matter what happens.

A story to change many others.

But enough dawdling. I shall start from the very beginning.

The story you are about to read is one of my personal past. My personal struggles, my terrible losses and how I came to defeat all of them, and rise up to what you see today.

It may inspire you, it may strike fear into you, but whatever happens, I am not responsible, and you have been warned.

Very well...

If you are ready... then we shall begin.

This book is the property of -

Chapter 1 - Enrollment

I have heard of many tales in my time, but none so more than that of the Skalari. My father when I was young had me enroll at a special school. He had warned me about the dangers of the Skalari, and about how only people of a certain age or after a certain time being exposed to their presence can see them. I was helping him and my mother out on the farm we lived in at the time, and both of them felt that I should do something more with my life. To this day, I do not regret what they have done.

The special school was named for an animal and was in a crudely-named but serene little town. It struck me, when I first entered the town with my father, how weird some of the wildlife looked. It puzzled me that he couldn't see them, yet I could. But since he did not mention anything, I did not ask. All we talked about were my ambitions, and as we walked into the entrance of the main school I was shocked to see many students using guns, claws, hammers and, most strange of all, magic. I had firmly disbelieved in magic right until now, but with the proof in front of me I could deny it no longer.

My father told me that there were in fact two schools, which were rivals. Every now and again one school would 'play' with the other, and it could get incredibly brutal, but because of the safety precautions, hardly anybody died. This was somewhat reassuring, but still very unnerving all the same.

As we walked into the doors of the gym, there stood two people. One had a very large gun on his back, and the other a spectacular staff. They introduced themselves to me as the Headmasters of the two schools, Owl and Dragon. It was at this point that my father turned and walked back through those gates, leaving me in their care forever. I still wanted to visit him sometime, and I had thought about doing so after I had graduated.

Anyway, the Headmasters explained the procedures of the schools to me. They worked on a similar basis in that there are typically six grades. Students wishing to advance a grade would have to take a special test, and therefore, it was not determined by their time at the school. They then told me about the entrance exam, a simple battle to demonstrate my abilities. If I was good enough for them, then they would let me choose which School I would like to study at.

I don't remember much about that first battle, except that I was incredibly nervous and scared, but the monster they had used was a dummy, in a safe environment, just to test out my abilities. Well, you must know what happened next. I was deemed good enough, and I chose a school for my own. However, I didn't stay in it as often as I should, because, since I liked the sound of both schools at the time, I would often go to classes between the two schools, and knew people on both sides really well, but I did not reveal to either side that I was attending classes at the other School.

The student bodies of the two Schools were nice towards me, but hostile towards each other. If they passed in the gym then a scuffle would normally break out. I couldn't do anything to stop them since I didn't want to reveal my allegiance to any of the others, but it pained me quite a lot to watch friends fight between each other. After speaking to the Headmasters, however, I realised that they had done this on purpose, to the mutual benefit of both sides in that students could hone their skills further. And since nobody actually died - they were stressing this point a lot - the feeling was soon quashed within me.

The mechanisms of auto-revival were explained to me as this: The students have an invisible shield around them, which decreased in duration as they were hit, with the duration of the shield referred to as 'life points', or 'HP'. If the HP of the shield was to fall to zero, then a device implanted in the armour of the student (coincidentally, over their heart) would activate and the student would be forced to fall to the ground, the better to prevent any cheating. After this has happened the student would automatically be teleported by the device to their 'save point'. However, the shield only protects the body from harm, not the armour. Damage to the armour would still have to be manually repaired at special staff members, called 'Mechers', for a small fee for their time and materials.

The Headmasters then told me that the Nurses also had these special revival devices, and the device in the armour of the student could be synced with one possessed by a Nurse. The student would therefore be teleported to the synced Nurse should their shield's HP fall to zero, who would then restore some of the HP of the shield, enabling the student to stand up again. These Nurses became known as 'save points' and the devices became known as 'respawn devices' amongst the students.

And so began my journey through the school. Those first few days would remain in my memory forever.

Chapter 2 - The Secret Power

Nothing much went on as I ploughed through the Grade Exams. I found it relatively easy, and pretty soon I had achieved the Fifth Grader status. I had heard from rumours that the Sixth Grade exam was very hard, and as of yet nobody has been able to finish it solo, which unfortunately was the requirement. Fortunately, it was not required for graduation. The Graduation Exam was a separate exam which could be taken at all grades, but was a harder trial than most.

I also found it progressively harder to keep the secret that I was still attending classes in both Schools. Duels between the schools would become more commonplace as my classmates and I progressed in grade. I was, as far as I knew, the only link between schools. I was the only one who was pretty much guaranteed safety, yet somehow I managed to not reveal a thing until after my graduation. I will not bore you with the details here, for they are highly irrelevant to the purpose of this book.

It was not these exams which I wish to bore you with. What really happened during my time at the School was not the friends I made. It was not the secrets I had to keep. It was a conversation between the Headmaster and an archaeologist whom he had invited to the office from Mara desert which intrigued me the most. He had called me to his office to have a conversation with him about my progress in the school, and quite by chance I overheard him talking to the archaeologist. I only heard the last few sentences, but those sentences changed me. For better or for worse... well, I'm about to find out.

What he said was precisely this. I will remember it forever:

"Well, of course I don't know the source of the power," I heard the archaeologist say.

"But if you know where to... ah... dig, I heard that it will make its presence known to you," he finished.

"Thank you, that information has been highly relevant," was the Headmaster's reply.

I had been listening through the keyhole, and barely had time to dwell on things, before suddenly the door opened and I was forced to leap aside. The Headmaster then beckoned me in. The archaeologist was still in the room. He discussed with me about my plans for the future like any other teacher would. I left the room with the knowledge that he wanted me back in there as soon as I finish the Graduation exam. He told me that not just anyone can search for that kind of power. It would take extreme skill and stamina to find out where it is. He also said he would give me more information after I graduate.

"Why aren't you telling this to everyone else?" I asked him, curious.

"You're the only one with links to both schools. Almost everyone else would not cooperate with the other school. It was intended that the schools be rivals, but never to this extent. You're the only one suitable for this job. I wish you the best of luck in your future studies, and I look forward to entrusting you with this information after your graduation."

So I headed back to my room, lost in thought. After a few more years, I took the Graduation exam. A very difficult trial, if I say so myself, but nonetheless I finished it with flying colours - the first, apparently, to ever do so.

I found my Headmaster and told him of the promise he had made. He did not hold back.

"Very well. I congratulate you on graduating from the School. This power I am about to discuss with you is one that can be used to the advantage of both schools. It is hidden somewhere in the depths of Mara. I will supply you with the equipment you will probably need for this purpose when the time comes. Your success or failure in this mission will determine the future of both schools, so no pressure at all."

No pressure... hah!

"You passed the Graduation exam with flying colours. I congratulate you again and wish you the very best with your life. Until we meet again, -, for the future of both schools will depend upon that moment."

A thought suddenly occured to me...

"I would like to request to stay here," I replied.

"Oh? Why, may I ask?" the Headmaster asked, more out of curiosity than anger.

"Well, I was planning to visit my parents after I graduated, so I was hoping... after I've done so... if I could... stay here?"

"Well... that's highly irregular, but I'm sure something can be arranged."

"Thank you very much, sir."

"There is no need to address me as 'sir' any more. I am no longer your teacher."

He had a point, yet somehow I couldn't help it. After so many years, it was, to me, more of a title because I was used to it, as opposed to respect, although it would be wrong to say that respect played no role at all.

Chapter 3 - World's End

So I returned to my house after so long away from it. Fond memories immediately rushed to my mind - all those times playing with my parents, helping them harvesting crops, and many others, all rushed to my head. When I saw the familiar fields with those same plants, I couldn't help but quicken my pace.

After knocking on the front door, an unfamiliar face greeted me - that of a woman, roughly the age of my parents. I had never seen her before in my life. Behind her I could see someone who must have been her daughter, who appeared to be a few years younger than me.

"Hello," she greeted me. I felt quite odd, standing in the doorway, face to face with this unfamiliar woman. I gave her an awkward greeting back.

"You must be the son of Mr. and Mrs. told me to give you this letter when you arrived..."

She handed me a letter, which I took.

"Where are they now?" I asked, dreadng the answer.

"I'm sorry... they were involved in a freak accident with the machinery... I was a family friend of your parents, and I was also present at the time... I'm sorry."

The words washed over me. Amidst her constant apologies I heard nothing. All I had left now were those memories... and the final letter...

"Feel free to come in... this is your house, after all," the woman said, still apologetic. I had nowhere else to go, after all, so I decided to take her up on her offer.

Her daughter was quite cute, and I stayed there for several months while my other house was being built. Before I was due to return, I asked for her hand in marriage - the daughter, I mean - and to my immense relief she agreed.

So, we moved back into the house on campus. We lived a more or less peaceful life and made lots of friends. We even had a daughter. The occasional crossfires in the gym didn't damper our peaceful life, although there were a few close shaves, nothing really happened to threaten our lives. I was summoned occasionally by the Headmaster for missions, and always returned with a souvenir from some Skalari or other for my daughter.

If only those days would last...

One day, a few years after the birth of my daughter, I decided to engrave these times into something more materialistic, so I decided to draw a portrait of my family. I still have it on me to this day, as a reminder of what happened... and the cruelty I was subjected to...

A few days after I had drawn the portrait, the Headmaster called me to his office. He gave me a sword, spade and a metal detector.

"It is time. You must head to Mara, and find this power. It is of utmost importance that you do."

I returned to my house and said goodbye to my wife and daughter, promising her another souvenir when I came back.

Little did I know that would be the last time I saw them both...

I found nothing in Mara. Yet, on my return, I learned that a crossfire had happened between the two schools. A stray fireball had ignited my house, and that as far as they knew, there were no survivors.

In that moment my world had turned upside down. I ran to the scene clutching a cow plushie, a gift from a farmer in Neo Kansas on my way back from Mara. It reminded me of my childhood, and I was planning to give it to my daughter... but now...

I remember collapsing in front of the house, unable to hold back tears... I wanted compensation...

I quickly confronted the Headmaster.

"What is the meaning of this?!" I recall myself shouting.

"I'm terribly sorry. It was beyond my control. The students occasionally fight each other in the gym, and very rarely spells do fly out at awkward angles. It was a very tragic, very rare incident. I'm sorry."

"But you encourage this rivalry! Surely you should be responsible then?!"

"Yes. I take full responsibility for this. The gym is monitored at all times, you can be assured that the person responsible will be caught and punished appropriately. Meanwhile please accept this as a small token of compensation, as well as my condolences and everyone else from both schools."

The Headmaster handed me a large bag of coins, which I accepted.

"Now, did you find anything in Mara?"

The nerve of that guy! He's still talking about the mission?!

"No." I replied, turning away.

I felt the portrait, folded in my pocket. It was all I had left now...

Chapter 4 - The Secret of Mara

The next few days passed by in a haze.

I couldn't tell reality from dreams any more...

The portrait was my only source of comfort...

I knew what I had to do...

In a rage, I ran back to Mara and renewed my search. It was night when I arrived, but even so, the journey made me sweat profusely within seconds. As I combed the Knight Shelter with my metal detector in one hand and sword in the other, I remembered what the Headmaster had told me... what the archaeologist had said all those years ago...

I made up my mind. I had to find the power no matter what... but not for the sake of the school... and the Headmaster can also go and die somewhere too... I need to find it for myself... to avenge my family... to stop the fighting... and most of all to restore everything to what it was... what it should be...

My aim...

is...

Restoration...

Unification...

Vengeance...

The three words circled around my head...

I searched every area above ground, but couldn't find a thing. The Skalari fell under a single blow by my sword imbued with my rage...

The Ice Scorpions took my interest somewhat. It seemed odd that they would thrive in the desert... yet... they must take form as the temperature falls and then melt at daytime. Somehow I felt that that must have been the case, yet it didn't seem they did... maybe something else is at work keeping them in their frozen form...?

Still wondering about the Ice Scorpions, I began to systematically comb through dungeon after dungeon. Even though I found many treasures, the source of the power did not reveal itself...

Day broke.

Curious, I went back to the Ice Scorpions.

Sure enough, they were gone.

I remember shaking my head solemnly. To lead such a vampiric existence... I wonder what it must feel like...?

I must keep going...

Cave after cave... Skalari after Skalari... all fell to the power of my rage.

And still nothing showed themselves.

I felt tired, I wanted to stop, yet I could not...

I entered the final temple... Shadow Valley. If it didn't show itself here... then...

Taking a deep breath, I entered the gateway...

...into a familiar landscape, and yet so different...

Its rooms reminded me of three tombs I had faced before... but the Skalari were not familiar at all...

No matter how different they were, I still cleaved through them with ease...

That is, until I reached IT.

Lele.

The Lord of Shadow Valley.

I had the upper hand throughout the battle...

But it pushed me back before I could deal the final blow...

I remember falling into the electric pit...

And everything faded to pitch blackness...

Some time later, I awoke on the cold floor of the final room of Shadow Valley. After gaining my senses again, I looked around and saw Lele, dead in a corner. A chest had also appeared from somewhere deep below, waiting to be opened.

I also saw a shadowy figure in a cloak... raspy words from it rushed over my ears... "untimely death"... "cruel"... "talent"... "greater purposes"... "a choice"...

Was this it?

"I will give you ultimate power. The power to rule all of Kasmari."

I jumped. Finally, it had revealed itself... my efforts up to this point were finally fruitful...

"Your end of the bargain?" the creature thought for a moment, "Write a book."

I looked puzzled. "What sort of book?"

"A memoir. Of everything you remember of Mara. It may... help you."

So here I am, writing this book. I hope it will inspire others that all is not lost and that there is still hope for recovery. The story of a man who has lost everything, and won despite the odds.

As for me, I need to claim my reward...

But before I do, remember - restoration, unification, vengeance...

Chapter 5 - Epilogue

This is the memoirs of a brave and valiant explorer, who was cursed with the spirit of the Scorpion shortly after the book was finished. The explorer's skills matched no other; he could cleave through a wall of Skalari with one swipe of his sword. However, despite his skill, a careless moment saw him pushed into an electric pit whilst in combat with the Lord of Shadow Valley, Lele. I showed myself to him and offered him a deal moments before he would have otherwise perished. He gladly accepted, and thus became the creature which is now the most feared in all of Kasmari, unleashing a curse upon the whole of Mara in the process. Mara is now no longer what has been described in this memoir, but a place of eternal night. To those who discover the book, you hold the most powerful object ever created in the palm of your hand.

Signed: The Wraith Lord

The mysterious book ended there. It was late. The other Owl students had joined StrangerD3RK and Magics to interrogate Sturm. The Dragons were filling in the Headmasters on what had happened during the battle outside the Red Desert Ruins.

Cristina sighed. Even though she could not make out the writer's name, she had read enough.

It felt strange... the epilogue seemed to be in a different handwriting than the rest of the book...

The book also described things she had never seen before... especially the last chapter... was it really that old? It didn't look its age at all if it was...

She sighed again, turned the last page, and closed the book, setting it down on the ground beside her.

She was about to join the others and tell them of what she had read...

"Cris! Put that book down NOW!" a panicked voice shouted from the main building.

It was already too late.

The book flicked open as if in a strong wind...

It turned to the last page...

The signature of the Wraith Lord began to glow...

Cristina was thrown backwards by a tremendous explosion. The cherry blossom tree was nearly uprooted, and the main building shook. Sturm fell out of a window from the second floor and into the bushes below.

The book threw itself into the air...

Cristina could only watch from the ground in horror...

Everyone else in the main building stared at the book...

Sturm picked himself up and started laughing like a maniac...

...as a jet-black vortex formed around the book, swirling faster and faster...

The signature of the Wraith Lord was still glowing...

A pair of glowing eyes shone through the darkness of the vortex, its intensity muffled by a black hooded cloak...

The white flash of the blade of a scythe being drawn...


	22. Chapter 22

**22. Interrogation**

Sturm, Magics and StrangerD3RK disappeared into the main building, towards the Headmaster's office. Cristina sat beneath her usual cherry blossom tree and began to read a small, black book.

"You haven't got a truth spell or anything, have you?" StrangerD3RK asked Magics.

"Nope, somehow the school never taught us that," Magics replied.

"Shame... looks like I'll have to get my whip out then...!" StrangerD3RK's eyes glowed.

"Y'know, that might work better," Magics grinned. "Now, all we have to do is wait until he wakes up."

After what felt like hours, Sturm finally stirred.

"W-where am I? What happened?" he looked slightly dazed. He looked around the room and saw Magics sitting in the Headmaster's chair. He himself was bound to the chair directly facing Magics across the table. Behind him, StrangerD3RK stood by the doorway, her iconic whip in her hand.

"So... which cop are you supposed to be?" Sturm grinned.

"Relax, we just want to ask you a few questions," Magics told him.

"You're getting nothing out of me, Magics, nothing!"

"I hope we don't have to resort to extreme measures,_ Sturm_," Magics threatened.

"Ask away all you want, I'm not guaranteeing you'll get anything of use out of it, though." Sturm snarled. Now that he was found out, he didn't have to pretend any more.

"When have you been working for him?" Magics began the questioning.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sturm gritted his teeth.

"Tell me exactly what happened in Mara!" Magics yelled.

"I ran." Sturm said simply.

"Where?" Magics pressed on.

"Everywhere."

"A little more detail if you please?"

"I went into a cave for a while and did something."

And so it went on, Magics pressing Sturm for answers, and Sturm not giving anything, while Cristina continued to read the mysterious book beneath the cherry blossom tree...

Slowly, the Headmaster's room filled... Sturm remained stubborn and speechless, Magics became more and more frustrated, and the sky grew darker and darker... and the unread portion of Cristina's book became thinner and thinner...

"I will ask you one more time, Sturm," said Magics for what seemed to be the three-hundred and sixty-first time. "What happened in Mara yesterday?!"

Sturm looked at the guns pointed at his head, at the hammers poised above him, at the wands flickering with magic energy, at Magics, who was raging so much electricity was pulsing through his hand again - like the day they had confronted DayBunny in Neo Kansas - and then at StrangerD3RK, whip poised. She had already lashed at Sturm several times, and he looked a little worse for wear. Sturm's gaze finally flicked away from her, and stopped at the claws held to his neck.

"You're going around in circles."

Almost everyone had gathered at Owl School now, with a select few still filling the Headmasters in. Many had wondered about Cristina and her book, but there were more pressing matters at hand - or so they thought.

"Enough with your empty threats, Magics!" yelled a voice suddenly, and Sturm was blasted with a huge barrage of bullets, slamming him into a wall.

Sturm grimaced. His staff had been knocked away and laid in a corner. Youki had picked it up and was now spinning it casually in his hand.

"I repeat, you're not going to get anything out of me."

"I bet I can get you to talk in six words," Youki said quietly.

"Try me," challenged Sturm.

"Do you see your HP bar?"

Sturm jumped. He couldn't see his shield's duration meter any more.

"You-!"

"Better get talking, then," Magics said simply.

Sturm growled underneath his breath.

"I suppose I have no choice. As I've said before, the Scorpion King told me everything. His story. His background. His goals. He even mentioned a memoir he was forced into writing.

"Many attempts have been tested before this to resurrect the Scorpion King over the years, but all have failed. One came close - that of thirty-seven years ago, led by the then-newly formed Dark Oracle Cult. The Headmasters learned of this and initiated their solution - the First Helixion Expedition. Had that expedition not taken place, then the world would have been a very different place.

"The Headmasters were there during the First Helixion Expedition. The soul of the Scorpion King had been reunited by the Dark Oracles, but just before the resurrection ritual could be performed, they were stopped.

"The thirteen Knights of Kaladrea - no doubt some of our parents may have been involved - seeked to destroy the Dark Oracles before the ritual can be executed. It was a success, but only ten returned, as we all know.

"Then, seven years ago, there was another Helixion expedition - this time involving us. The Dark Oracles had been getting stronger. But this time the Scorpion King's soul had been united again, but he bode his time.

"The host? You wouldn't want to know."

"We know it's DayBunny, Sturm. That part's been suprisingly obvious," Magics said. "Why don't you continue?"

"Very well. DayBunny was the host this time. It had nothing to do with the Dark Oracles, but given what had happened the last time, this time the Second Helixion Expedition was aimed at reducing their strength. Their secret pyramid cave was raided and their strength crippled. But still he bode his time.

"Everything had to fall into plan. Everything had to be just right. He had to wait.

"You know the rest... or most of it, anyway.

"There is something else. Something darker."

Sturm paused here, and stared at everyone poised to attack. He sighed, and continued.

"The Wraith Lord."

"What's that?" Magics asked.

"The Wraith Lord is a literal heartless creature. He is the creation of none other than Dr. Victor, who learned the power of Skalari manipulation using science. The Wraith Lord's heart and soul were split into two separate entities - the Heart of the Wraith Lord was placed inside the Cave of the Dead, guarded by the Ghost Enticer, while his corporeal being was captured seven hundred years ago. The Dark Oracles have been finding a way to resurrect him, but to no avail. This was the other reason for the Second Helixion Expedition - to stop the Dark Oracles from resurrecting the Wraith Lord as well as the Scorpion King, by weakening their numbers and striking at strategic points.

"However, there is one way...

"There is a journal. A memoir. Cris was holding it when you teleported out of the Ruins.

"If someone ever reads that book from beginning to end, word for word, from page one to the final page... well, let's say things get... really ugly. So...

"I wouldn't let her finish that book, if I were you," finished Sturm with an evil grin.

"What the-" Magics was startled, while Hatake rushed into the corridor and found the nearest window to Cristina. He immediately hollered something to her, and Sturm used this moment of confusion to his advantage and edged his chair towards the window on the other side, before snapping his ropes using the sharp edge of a windowsill.

Hatake's yell was too late.

Cristina had already put the book down.

She turned at Hatake's call, but it was already no use.

The book lifted itself into the air and a massive shockwave shook the main building and blasted Cristina backwards. The cherry tree was nearly uprooted. Sturm tumbled out of his chair and out of the main building into a bush below.

The book swirled in the middle of a black vortex, the glowing signature of the Wraith Lord a spinning, glowing blur...

Two red eyes, their intensities muffled by a cloak, shone through the vortex...

Sturm began to laugh like a maniac.

A flash of white...

A scythe being drawn...

The thing drifted closer and closer towards the entrance of the vortex - from the other side...

The scythe was raised...

And slashed back down in a diagonal line.

The flash did not vanish, but stayed in place...

A gesture from the creature...

The flash threw itself towards Cristina - and passed right through her, stopping behind her.

The HP value of her shield fell to zero... and shattered.

She collapsed onto the floor and was immediately teleported away to her respawn location...

The flash of the scythe opened itself up into another vortex...

...and seven Grim Reapers step out, each with their own scythe, each as deadly as the last.

The Grim Reapers lined up in front of the main building. The Wraith Lord's vortex also turned to face the main building, directly behind the Grim Reaper in the center.

"Oh... crap..." Magics and Hatake both swore underneath their breaths.

The Grim Reapers charged towards the main building as the Wraith Lord's scythe flashed again...

Sturm's evil laugh echoed across the Owl School campus.


End file.
